Soccer Inspirational Quotes

Whenever you are going through life’s challenges, remember that for iron to be cast into its desired form, it must first go through intense heat.

Many people say I'm the best women's soccer player in the world. I don't think so. And because of that, someday I just might be.

Soccer forces life to move on. There’s always a new match. A new season. There’s always a dream that everything can get better. It’s a game of wonders.

The ball laughs, radiant, in the air. He brings her down, puts her to sleep, showers her with compliments, dances with her, and seeing such things never before seen his admirers pity their unborn grandchildren who will never see them.

And one fine day the goddess of the wind kisses the foot of man, that mistreated, scorned foot, and from that kiss the soccer idol is born. He is born in a straw crib in a tin-roofed shack and he enters the world clinging to a ball.

You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it.

He was the northern star. I had no choice but to become enveloped in his brightness and let it coax me toward him. Wanting him was an unconscious impulse, like taking my next breath.

The smell of the sweat is not sweet, but the fruit of the sweat is very sweet.

I worked on my weaknesses and made them my strengths.

Anson Dorrance ... left me a short, encouraging note: "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching.

Some people like baseball, some soccer and some others like no sports at all. Their psychological orientation with sports doesn't make them any less or more human. The same is with religious orientation. The true Kingdom of God is within you, and it is defined by your behavior with other people, regardless of their religious affiliation. You are the God of your life, and your divinity lies in your actions.

Jahan took a breath and composed herself. “When I was a little sort of girl and I would see a gentleman or a lady with good, clean clothes I would run and hide my face. But after I graduated from the Korphe School, I felt a big change in my life. I felt I was clear and clean and could go before anybody and discuss anything. And now that I am already in Skardu, I feel that anything is possible. I don’t want to be just a health worker. I want to be such a woman that I can start a hospital and be an executive, and look over all the health problems of all the women in the Braldu. I want to become a very famous woman of this area,” Jahan said, twirling the hem of her maroon silk headscarf around her finger as she peered out the window, past a soccer player sprinting through the drizzle toward a makeshift goal built of stacked stones, searching for the exact word with which to envision her future. “I want to be a… ‘Superlady’” she said, grinning defiantly, daring anyone, any man, to tell her she couldn’t. p. 313

You were teeny tiny like a baby tomato. But you've gotten so big! And you're going to keep growing until you're bigger and stronger and taller. So instead of thinking about dying, how about you think about how awesome it is to be alive? Dad can't run right now, but you can. Dad can't jump right now, but Roma can! Before you die you get to LIVE!

I thought about soccer in history, the inspiration for wars, truces, rampaging mobs. The game was a global passion, spherical ball, grass or turf, entire nations in spasms of elation or lament. But what kind of sport is it that disallows the use of players' hands, except for the goalkeeper? Hands are essential human tools, the things that grasp and hold, that make, take, carry, create. If soccer were an American invention, wouldn't some European intellectual maintain that our historically puritanical nature has compelled us to invent a game structured on anti-masturbatory principles?

In any game, the game itself is the prize, no matter who wins, ultimately both lose the game.

Discipline over ability wins every time.

We always have choices. Choose to respond with our best selves. Choose to focus on what we can control. -Coach AKA The Hulk

Football is an art players paint with their feet.

In reality, the vagina is not a game of soccer to be kicked around like a ball. Its goal is to love and not keep score of how many times it’s beaten the competition. Having a vagina is a beautiful thing and shouldn’t be locked up or controlled by those who do not have one.

The game isn't over until we stop fighting. Like my ten thousand hours chart. Ten thousand touches. Ten thousand tries. Ten thousand spectacular fails until you finally get it. I'm trying so hard to stay positive. Just because I'm failing right now doesn't mean I'll stop. Believe me, if I could, I'd never doubt again. I'd believe every single second and never stop.

We had a strict routine that nothing could change: we'd get up at six, and it would be my job or Meinhard's to get milk from the farm door. When w were a little older and starting to play sports, exercises were added to the chores, and we had to earn our breakfast by doing sit-ups. In the afternoon, we'd finish our homework and chores, and my father would make us practice soccer no matter how bad the weather was.

There are three types of teams, each of which requires different types of management and organization. The first type of team is like a pair of doubles tennis partners. It is a small team, in which each person adapts to the abilities of the other. Players have a primary responsibility, but can play many different roles. The second type of team is like a soccer or football team, in which each person has a given position, but the whole team moves together. The third team type is like a baseball team, in which all players have an assigned position and play on the team, rather than as a team. This model is akin to the traditional Detroit automaker, where each person has his or her assigned task. Organizations have to decide which type of team fits best, a decision that affects the entire organizational culture. Mixed teams don’t work; they just confuse everyone involved. Increasingly, organizations are becoming more like soccer or tennis teams, in which each member has to take more personal responsibility in making decisions. In such organizations, managers must inspire, rather command. You must fit the appropriate management style for your team type.

a match

Argentine

scorer

I think that if you regularly practice an activity that involves moving your body a lot, you will love your body for what it allows you to do, not for what it looks like. If you’re a dancer, a runner, a yogi or a soccer player, you need your body’s cooperation to be able to perform. So you’ll treat it right for that reason. And appreciate all of its strength and beauty also for that reason.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was born in Athens, Greece on December 6, 1994, to Charles and Veronica Antetokounmpo, who migrated from Nigeria all the way to Greece. Charles was a former soccer player while Veronica was a high-jumper. However, both Charles and Veronica were illegal immigrants to Greece. As such, Giannis and two of his other brothers, who were also born in Greece, had no citizenship and were neither Nigerian nor Greek.

C'era una magia, quella notte, qualcosa che ci lasciava credere che la partita l'avremmo vinta, anche se avevamo di fronte una squadra fortissima, stavamo sotto di tre gol ed eravamo appena scesi in Segunda Division. Ci sono partite nelle quali lo senti dentro, che succederà qualcosa, anche se il risultato sembra una montagna da scalare. In quelle partite, il risultato parziale è una bugia, non esiste, esiste solo la voglia di crearne uno nuovo.

We go back for those left behind, don't we, Golden? -Lucy Littlehouse

I love you, buddy. Sometimes when she says this it almost feels like she's saying, 'I'm sorry for everything.' Me too.

I look up at Lucy's light in the window, then at the black light. The universe is so big. And I'm so small. Messi was small and discounted. Nobody thought he would become the greatest of all time. But he did. George things he's won...but the game's so.not over yet.

I have no doubt: we all have our shining moments. -Coach Dave Fleming

Something deep in my character allows me to take the hits, and get on with trying to win. -Lionel Messi

I told Roma that even though her cells are dying, there were new ones being made every single second of the day. Isn't that what's happening to my arm? Cells are broken and dying but also trying to heal me. New cells every single second. So that means I will play again.

The world is short on finishers. FINISH.

You think soccer is just a game? Well then, you’ve never played it. -Golden

Abby Wambach, #20, one of the best players in the world, two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup champion, top international goal scorer. During her last game she didn't start, but she cheered so hard and so loud -from the bench- that the US won anyway.

He struggles to sit as straight as possible. And it is a struggle - I can see the fight for every single muscle fiber in his body. Sometimes I've felt he was too accepting, when all I wanted was for him to put up a fight. But right now I see the fire that flares up in his eyes. the look I've seen countless times when he was pushing me to be stronger and better.

What are the qualities of a hero? Loss. Defeat. A comeback. -Coach Patrick Maroni

And no matter what, we'll always be together, Golden. No matter where I travel, no matter who buys our house, no matter where you go. We were born on the same day in the same hospital, remember?

I don't think about what it will be like to say good-bye. I don't ask about her leaving. I don't think about how sad I'll be without her, or say I'll miss her or how life will be a perfect graveyard without her living next door for the rest of our lives...Lucy's eyes, deep and blue and flecked with light from dancing disco stars hanging from the ceiling, remind me of the sky, but also of water. I've never been to Maine, but I imagine that the color of the ocean there looks something like Lucy's blue eyes.

It's hard to beat someone who never quits -Benny Ho

You'll likely hear some whiners complaining about the weather. That's what whiners do. They whine about stuff. They can't help it. Sad. -Coach

They've beaten us once and tied us once. The look on their faces is pure confidence, like they've already won. Rookie mistake. Never underestimate your opponent. They don't know what's coming.

Anytime, any weather, we play best when we're together.

And I know, like I'll always know, that when Dad's got his eyes on me, I will never-ever-give up. You have to fight to reach your dreams. Make the impossible possible. We got this, Dad.

We always have choices. In tough, stressful situations, there are two choices. We can let the stress consume us and respond with self-doubt or fear. We can shut down. Or we can choose to respond with our best selves. Choose to focus on what we can control. We can discipline ourselves to do what we know how to do. -Coach

All the preparation for this very moment is behind you. You've practiced and sprinted in hot and humid weather until you thought you were going to barf. You've worked on your touch, your through balls, your shots. You've psyched each other up. You are ready to win this game because you are the best-conditioned and most unselfish team out there. Let's go do what we can do! -Coach

Every great athlete has at least one moment that will forever haunt them because of what might have been. After years of literal sweat and tears, a dream can be over in seconds. This is my moment.

It's not exactly what I wanted. Not how I always pictured this moment. But I know that just like I've given my all for him, he's giving everything he has to give. To me. His Golden Boy. And that makes it perfect.

We can't let our team down if we are trying to do the right thing. -Coach Karl

I have come to learn that I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. Perfect is too hard. I'm perfectly fine with being perfectly imperfect. -attributed to Lionel Messi

Dad would say, In the end, what is soccer? It's just a game. It's air in a leather ball. It's kicking a ball across lines painted on a field. Just a game. But for us, it was always more than that. It was how Patrick Maroni and Coach taught us how to live. How to be a team. How to say good-bye.

Even now, when Benny and I are running down the soccer field and the wind is blowing through my Messi hair and the crowd is chanting my name (hey, I can dream, right?) and the sun is shining on my face and I'm going so fast I feel like I'm flying - he's with me. My dad. I feel him everywhere, but especially on the field. With me. His Golden Boy.

There's no one I believe in more than you, Golden. -Lucy Littlehouse

When there's a will, there's a freakin' way. Am I right?! -Golden Maroni

ANYONE can be negative. Being positive is the real discipline. -Coach

Instead of doom and gloom, Dad seems...transformed. He has a smile on his face, eyes closed. Water is pouring out of the shower spigot, down his face, over his eyes, nose, and mouth. Did you actually ride a bike? Mom asks. No, he says. I was FLYING. And no matter how mad Mom is, I'm suddenly triumphant too, that I could make him feel that way. Like we can really do anything together. Even if it takes ten thousand tries.

Sometimes there are no second chances, no next time. Sometimes it's now or never. -soccer great, Abby Wambach

If you remember anything I've taught you, I hope it's to treat people well, especially your family. THAT will make you a man. -Dad to Golden

I kneel by my side of the bed to pray, something I've only ever done because Mom and Dad told me to. But today I decide on my own. After all, Messi's a believer too. I've seen him do it a hundred times - pointing at the sky when he scores, like he's acknowledging something or someone up there who holds pieces of his destiny. Destiny. It does seem like destiny flies in the face of ten thousand hours and actually earning a starting position. But even I have to admit - after all the fighting, after all the hard work - there's a piece of me that's looking for a miracle. So I look up and put my hands together....please.

Were we destined to have a Dad with ALS or is it all just random? Is this a test? To see how much we love him? This is how I’d answer: Ten thousand tries until we’ve mastered the impossible thing? That’s nothing. Nothing compared to how much I love Dad. We create our own destiny. ALS doesn’t stand a chance against the Maroni dream team.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that. -Bill Shankly, Scottish football (soccer) player

Maybe it’s not your job to make everything better. -Lucy

How do you mark Cristiano Ronaldo? You try not to leave him alone, don't let him shoot on his right foot. And Lionel Messi? Just make the sign of the cross. -Giorgio Chiellini

The best teams are made up of a bunch of nobodies who love everybody and serve anybody and don't care about becoming a somebody. -Phill Dooley

Step over the white line. You're on the field now. Leave everything else behind. BE HERE. -Coach Karl

That's the hardest part about life. When you try your very hardest, when you give everything and can't give any more...and it still doesn't go the way you want it to go. -Dad

The team battles each other for a full five minutes until Sunny gets a pass from Brady and comes in with a sniper-like play to score on CJ. I look longingly after Benny and sunny as they high-five. This is what happens inside the white lines: nothing else matters, not who's cool or uncool, just the team.

Maybe...Destiny is finally starting to make its move.

You can overcome anything, if and only if you love something enough." -Lionel Messi

When you saw him you would think: this kid can't play ball...He's too fragile, too small. But immediately you'd realize that he was born different, that he was a phenomenon and that he was going to be impressive. -Adrian Coria on his first impression of twelve-year-old Lionel Messi, soccer phenom

Dad says that whenever we encounter a setback, we should "bounce," or pivot to the next solution. The impossible is always possible - you just have to find a way.

Poor Mom. Doesn't she know that Dad's unbeatable too?

I sat on the couch, alone. Like a stone. Because you know what I heard Mom say? He will PROBABLY pass away. PROBABLY. So...there was a chance. A chance he could live. I would make sure he got that chance.

I'm not gonna be most people. -Golden

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It's three long words, and I can say it faster than anyone in the family, like a ninja-twister champ. I didn't mean to get so good at it, but it goes through my head over and over like a soccer move I can't shake. It's a super-frustrating disease to fight. One day a muscle moves - the next day? Nope.

Mom said we have to be careful not to get our hopes up too much. Why not? I said. Isn't that what hope is for?

Most ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, but most aren’t willing to do what it takes to get extraordinary results. Me? I’m willing!

Slow makes smooth and smooth is fast.

I’m early to practice because I drive with Coach, who, like every soccer season, transforms into this thing where she’s no longer my mother. She’s harder, with a look in her eyes I don’t dare cross, a look that says LUNGES, SQUATS, AND SPRINTS UNTIL YOU DIE! It’s like having the Incredible Hulk for a mom.

Have a good day, darlin' girl. Be kind, be brave, and remember who loves you! -Golden (the mortifying things I now have to say to my sister)

You don't give up on me and I don't give up on you.

Only a tiny chip of paint is missing from my most recent hit. But hey, if you value boring, unchipped doorframes and sloppy ball control, by all means, keep the soccer ball outside or sitting neglected in the garage for nine months out of the year. From firsthand experience I know that until you master the ball, it has to roll across kitchen floors, hit walls, windows, cupboards, your little Squirrel sisters - and your snarling older one, too. The ball flies off your knees and hits the telephones, breaks dishes, and busts windowpanes until you can control it from ever hitting anything you don’t want it to again. That’s the price you pay for greatness.

What's really unfair is that Dad put in his ten thousand hours. I've see the footage from his pro days, studied him as a Coach. He had mastered it. Now, as I watch him shuffling inside, I wonder what it feels like to have put in your ten thousand hours only to go backward in time and have to start all over.

Being humble is not about showing people how popular and arrogant you are, it's about your modesty and how you show yourself to others. It's not about being better than anyone else

If anyone needs a role model for inspiration in any field, then Messi is the Man.

to the major leagues. As Jim became more interested in sports, his parents tried to gently direct him to soccer, a sport famous for not needing the use of your hands. Yet everyone in the neighborhood was playing baseball, so that is what Jim Abbott wanted to play. As any good parent would, Mike would spend hours with Jim working on hand-eye coordination drills to help him accomplish the same motions other kids were doing with two hands. After hours of throwing rubber balls against brick walls and catching the rebounds, Jim eventually began practicing the glove technique that would make him famous. He would elegantly remove his left hand from his glove and then take the ball out of his glove to throw to the

The award-winning American TV series Breaking Bad has a scene in its second season set in the murder capital of Ciudad Juárez. In this episode, American and Mexican agents are lured to a patch of desert just south of the border looking for an informant. They discover the informant’s head has been cut off and stuck on the body of a giant turtle. But as they approach, the severed cranium, turned into an IED, explodes, killing agents. The episode was released in 2009. I thought it was unrealistic, a bit fantastic. Until July 15, 2010. In the real Ciudad Juárez on that day, gangsters kidnapped a man, dressed him in a police uniform, shot him, and dumped him bleeding on a downtown street. A cameraman filmed what happened after federal police and paramedics got close. The video shows medics bent over the dumped man, checking for vital signs. Suddenly a bang rings out, and the image shakes vigorously as the cameraman runs for his life. Gangsters had used a cell phone to detonate twenty-two pounds of explosives packed into a nearby car. A minute later, the camera turns back around to reveal the burning car pouring smoke over screaming victims. A medic lies on the ground, covered in blood but still moving, a stunned look on his face. Panicked officers are scared to go near him. The medic dies minutes later along with a federal agent and a civilian. I’m not suggesting that Breaking Bad inspired the murders. TV shows don’t kill people. Car bombs kill people. The point of the story is that the Mexican Drug War is saturated with stranger-than-fiction violence. Mexican writer Alejandro Almazán suffered from a similar dilemma. As he was writing his novel Among Dogs, he envisioned a scene in which thugs decapitate a man and stick a hound’s head on his corpse. It seemed pretty out there. But then in real life some gangsters did exactly that, only with a pig’s head. It is just hard to compete with the sanguine criminal imagination. Cartel thugs have put a severed head in a cooler and delivered it to a newspaper; they have dressed up a murdered policeman in a comedy sombrero and carved a smile on his cheeks; and they have even sewn a human face onto a soccer ball.

Pele represented everything in soccer because of what he has done on the pitch.

Most times the poetic in life is found in many things around us. You would find it in the deft play of a football player on a soccer pitch. An orange sky with the descending sun at twilight. The laughter of a toddler playing with dirt. Or the feel of the wind caressing your face. Poetry most times is found in the profound.

I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match. —Mia Hamm, member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame