(By Bahhaj Taherzadeh).- There have been many things said about the game of soccer—some complimentary, some not.
There are those who view it as religion, as life and death, and there are those who think it is the most boring spectacle they have ever laid eyes on. But everyone has an opinion.
Where will you find a list with the words of Roy Keane and Gary Lineker sitting alongside the wisdom of George Orwell and Jean-Paul Sartre? Nowhere, that’s where. Below are 20 of the most memorable, humorous, and thought-provoking sentences ever uttered about the game.
1. “Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.”
—Albert Camus, Algerian-born, French author and Nobel laureate
2. “International football is the continuation of war by other means.”
—George Orwell, English novelist
3. “Soccer isn’t the same as Bach or Buddhism. But it is often more deeply felt than religion, and just as much a part of the community’s fabric, a repository of traditions.”
—Franklin Foer, American journalist and writer
4. “The thing about football—the important thing about football—is that it’s not just about football.”
—Terry Pratchett, English novelist
5. “In his life, a man can change wives, political parties or religions, but he cannot change his favorite soccer team.”
—Eduardo Hughes Galeano, Uruguayan journalist and writer
6. “The ball is round, the game lasts ninety minutes, and everything else is just theory.”
—Josef Herberger, German soccer player and manager
7. “Football is the ballet of the masses.”
—Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer
8. “In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.”
—Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and novelist
9. “In football, the worst blindness is only seeing the ball.”
—Nelson Falcao Rodrigues, Brazilian playwright and author
10. “Football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.”
—Gary Lineker, English soccer player and TV personality
11. “Soccer is best understood as a dance for space.”
—Simon Kuper, English Journalist and writer
12. “I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”
—Nick Hornby, English writer and novelist
13. “My father used to say, ‘If you want to know the artist, look at the art.’ He was usually talking about Stanley Matthews or Don Bradman when he said it.”
—David Peace, English novelist
14. “Soccer is . . . both romantic and tragic, and the soft agony of a bad game is an inescapable part of this. You spend all your time hoping something will happen, and it never does. You get a surge of adrenaline every time the ball flies anywhere near the goal, and you’re always disappointed. But then, every once in a while, James McFadden will score from 30 yards at the Parc des Princes to give Scotland an impossible 1-0 lead over France, and a ponderous game will go all kinds of nervous-breakdown crazy.”
—Brian Phillips, American journalist and writer
15. “I’ve spent the last fifteen years of my life railing against the game of soccer, an exercise that has been lauded as ‘the sport of the future’ since 1977. Thankfully, that future dystopia has never come.”
—Chuck Klosterman, American journalist and writer
16. “A penalty is a cowardly way to score.”
—Pele, Brazilian Soccer God
17. “The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they don’t know the game.”
—Bill Shankly, Scottish soccer player and manager
18. “Winning isn’t everything. There should be no conceit in victory and no despair in defeat.”
—Matt Busby, Scottish soccer player and manager
19. “Behind every kick of the ball there has to be a thought.”
—Dennis Bergkamp, Dutch soccer player
20. “I don’t believe skill was, or ever will be, the result of coaches. It is the result of a love affair between the child and the ball.”
—Roy Keane, Irish soccer player
Source: Paste Magazine.
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