Football Greats Quotes

If I had to chose between Messi and Ronaldo, then most likely I would choose Messi.

Depending on who we're playing, it's just kind of, like, a little starstruck. You know, because these are guys that... I'm playing against Tom Brady or Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, guys like that that I've been watching since high school, that's been doing crazy things.

I think it was fantastic being in the 49ers Hall of Fame.

We have about 4 million people who have voted for who they want to see in the Hall of Fame. There are some people they put down that are pretty good players. You have Ray Guy, Jim Plunkett, Lester Hayes and Donnie Shell.

Leo [Messi] is the best player of all time - better than Pele, Maradona or Cruyff. There have been some great teams in history - Pele's Brazil, Cruyff's Ajax, Sacchi's Milan - but in the past 20 years this Barcelona team is the best.

Fella’s a genius. Best ever by a distance in my life time. Never really saw Pele… Souness, Gullit, Venables and now Rooney agree Messi is the best they have seen. He plays a game with which we are not familiar.

An Ibra-Messi tandem would have been marvellous, but history decided otherwise.

When I was younger my idols were Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

To me, Messi, Neymar and Suarez are among the three best players in the world.

Messi and Ronaldo are certainly the best in the world. They are both unbelievable. I am very happy to be a contemporary of these geniuses.

It is wonderful... Steve and Dan took professional football to a whole different level with the way they played the game. The fact that Steve is going in with Dan is very special.

Maradona is among the best five players I've ever seen: Garrincha, Pele, Diego, Cruijff and Beckenbauer.

Best player I ever played against? I mean, I played against many, many good players, so I don't know who to keep. I would say Ronaldo the Fenomeno.

Ronaldo and Messi, in particular, are above everybody else.

Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two players that, the way I see it, can have a spot amongst the best of all time.

For many years, Messi and Ronaldo will be the two best. After them, there is Xavi, Andres Iniesta, and others. I hope to be in the top ten.

We are constantly told to enjoy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo before they retire but what about Arjen Robben?

Brian Dawkins, to me, in an era I played in, there were three, really four safeties where their numbers and their impact on the game stands alone.

Paolo Maldini and John Terry are two of the toughest men I have met on the field.

AC Milan would never have been the same club without Paolo Maldini or Franco Baresi and they certainly would have never had the same amount of success.

I played with great teammates like Ronaldinho and Messi. I think they are two of the greatest players in the history of football.

The likes of Frank Lampard and John Terry at Chelsea, English players with proper status at a club, they're going to be like the dodo bird. Extinct.

I think Ray Guy and John Madden for sure should be in the Hall of Fame and Cliff Branch should be as well.

Paolo Maldini never won, but he was the best defender in the world. Gianluigi Buffon never won; he was the best goalkeeper in the world for many years. But this is the story of the Ballon d'Or.

We often compare footballers with players of the past.