“Shevchenko is the best attacker in Europe. He has a great deal of consistency and he just keeps scoring - which in Italian football is very difficult. He is a complete player, someone who can do everything on a football field.” DifficultCan DoDealsPlayerFieldsFootballEuropeItalianConsistencyFootball Field Author:Andriy Shevchenko
“Sven-Göran Eriksson, confronted with arguably Europe's weakest qualifying group, has a problem; it is the same one that afflicted Jacques Santini, the France coach at the time, before Euro 2004. Not that there are no easy matches at international level; rather, there are no hard ones. In qualifying for the 2004 European Championship finals, France faced a group not of death, but of sun-block, comprising Slovenia, Israel, Cyprus and Malta, which they duly won by ten points, averaging 3.6 goals per game. We all know what happened next.” KnowsHardProblemNextGamesEasyGoalLevelsSunHappenedGroupsFootballTenEuropeFinalsInternationalIsraelCoachesBlockFranceSoccerRanAnalysisChampionshipEuroQualifyingCyprusMalta Author:Martin Samuel
“The Frankfurt Galaxy( The NFL Europe team) always had tremendous success, at that time there were 2,000 American football clubs in Europe playing the game from juniors through to adults.” SuccessGamesTeamFootballAdultsEuropeClubsNflGalaxyJuniorsAmerican FootballFootball ClubsFrankfurt Author:Bill Peterson
“Holland I think is the best school to learn football. I think its a great league for that because it's not the strongest league in Europe.” ThinkingSchoolFootballEuropeLeagueStrongestHollandBest School Author:Rafael van der Vaart
“The Premier League is very difficult football and very different to when you play in Europe, but the player has to have experience to adapt, and this is the key point.” DifferentPlayDifficultPlayerFootballKeysEuropeLeaguePremier League Author:Fernando Torres
“I was in Athens for a football match when 9/11 went down, and it was quite spectacular - we went into this bar and tried to find out what happened, and the bartender said "it's only the American and the Arabs. They're not big football nations." So the feeling was, what's it got to do with us? Why are football games being cancelled in Europe? The intelligentsia in the West feel like they have to figure out the significance of it all, whereas people have other pressing concerns, related to basic needs.” PeopleNeedsFeelsSaidFeelingsBigsGamesNationsHappenedFiguresFootballEuropeConcernDown AndWestBarsRelatedSignificanceSpectacularFootball GameAthensBartenderBasic NeedsFootball Match Author:Irvine Welsh
“The Premier League is the No1 league in the world in many areas. The events, the shocks, the production, the viewing figures, the worldwide audience are by far the best. Do I think at this moment in time it's got the highest quality levels in Europe in terms of Champions League football and domination of that area? In quality terms it needs to rise again to get to that point where it's by far the best in all areas.” ThinkingWorldNeedsMomentsTermLevelsQualityAudienceEventsFiguresFootballHighestEuropeAreasProductionsLeagueChampionShockDominationMoments In TimePremier LeagueChampions League Author:Gary Neville
“Even though I support the blue side of Manchester's football heritage, I don't really mind that wherever I go in the world it's not Manchester City that starts the conversation. 'Ah, yes, Manchester United,' is the response when I say where I come from. It's commonplace everywhere - in Europe, Africa, Asia and even the U.S.” WorldMindSidesUnitedCitiesSupportFootballConversationEuropeBlueResponseHeritageAsiaCommonplaceManchesterManchester UnitedManchester City Author:Lucy Powell