These World Cup quotes will inspire you.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging World Cup quotes, World Cup sayings, and World Cup proverbs.
Best World Cup Quotes
- “Soccer is a great game, and the rich variety of styles and passions that come with being truly global makes the World Cup a nonpareil event in the universe of competitive sport.” ~ Serge Schmemann
- “The World Cup is a very important way to measure the good players, and the great ones. It is a test of a great player.” ~ Pele
- “Nobody wants to be associated with failing to qualify for the World Cup finals. I cannot imagine the shame of it.” ~ Rio Ferdinand
- “The first World Cup I remember was in the 1950 when I was 9 or 10 years old. My father was a soccer player, and there was a big party, and when Brazil lost to Uruguay, I saw my father crying.” ~ Pele
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“You have to show up in the World Cup, and in the World Cup anything can happen.” ~ Lionel Messi
- “I love football, but I’m sick of the World Cup. I don’t even care about England.” ~ Elton John
- “Being an ex-England manager, one that failed to qualify for the World Cup, is like being a dead politician.” ~ Graham Taylor
- “The World Cup was a huge frustration because I had prepared really hard for it. But in the World Cup there is no formula, no recipe for success.” ~ Kaka
- “You know as a player that you won’t have many opportunities to play in World Cups – so you have to take them when you can.” ~ Lionel Messi
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“There’s more chance of me flying Concorde to the moon blindfolded than there is of you taking Wales to the World Cup.” ~ Robbie Savage
- “The adidas +Challenge is a really cool opportunity for kids here in Los Angeles and across the country to get excited for the FIFA World Cup this summer. As a big fan of soccer, Im looking forward to seeing the 32 youth teams compete for the title of Team USA and represent our country at the global finals in Berlin.” ~ Luke Wilson
- “This is the first time Denmark has ever reached the World Cup finals, so this is the most significant moment in Danish history.” ~ John Helm
- “I’m sure sex wouldn’t be so rewarding as this World Cup. It’s not that sex isn’t good but the World Cup is every four years and sex is not.” ~ Ronaldo
- “If a FIFA World Cup tournament had been held every year between 1982 and 1986, France would have won two or three.” ~ Michel Patini
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“One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch so it is not worthwhile to wait for the World Cup.” ~ Zlatan Ibrahimovic
- “I will never forget my first game for England at the World Cup, It was against Turkey… no I mean Tunisia.” ~ David Seaman
- “That goal [in the 1998 World Cup] changed me-not as a person, but as a player. People have looked at me differently ever since. It gave me confidence and now I feel I can achieve anything.” ~ David Beckham
- “I scored in a World Cup and I want that buzz again.” ~ Jermain Defoe
- “Im looking forward to the World Cup because I believe Wayne Rooney could be one of the major finds in world football.” ~ Bobby Charlton
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“In ’82 Brazil showed that you can’t win the World Cup without a solid defense.” ~ Alan Hansen
- “I’ve signed a contract with the Dutch national team until 2006. So I can win the World Cup not once but twice.” ~ Louis van Gaal
- “I want to go to the World Cup. I want to go to the Masters. I want to go… anywhere.” ~ Michael Phelps
- “Nobody likes being criticised, particularly by players who will be in Disneyland this summer on their holidays rather than the World Cup in Japan” ~ Phil Thompson
- “We’re not going to walk into the World Cup thinking, ‘Ah, you know, we beat Norway 5-0 and we beat Japan so now we’re great and we’re untouchable’. It’s a reality check for a few guys and that’s a good thing at this time so it doesn’t happen on June 12 (when the U.S. team opens World Cup play against the Czech Republic).” ~ Kasey Keller
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“I’m not prepared to make any comments on the World Cup in Qatar in 1922.” ~ Roy Hodgson
- “I wasn’t like, boo hoo, Bin Laden’s dead, but I wasn’t jumping. America’s a very nationalistic country, and in episodes like that of his death, it becomes jingoism. People are drinking, dancing in the street, chanting USA like they’re at the World Cup, like they won it… It’s sick that we turned it into a sporting event.” ~ Jeremy Scahill
- “I don’t feel pressure. I don’t give a toss about it. I spent the afternoon of Sunday, July 9, 2006 in Berlin sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out and won the World Cup.” ~ Andrea Pirlo
- “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe I was good enough to be here and hopefully I can perform well for my club and try and get to the World Cup.” ~ Peter Crouch
- “Mind you, I would not want the pressure of being number one in the world just two years before a World Cup. There is only one way to go and it is not up.” ~ David Campese
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“When I die, the last thing I want to see is the six that Dhoni hit in the 2011 World Cup final.” ~ Sunil Gavaskar
- “Everyone knows that England are a far better team than their World Cup performance suggests. It’s vital that we play with confidence and take the strength and competition of the engage Super League in to the Four Nations.” ~ Paul Sculthorpe
- “I wasn’t as fit as I would of liked to have been, going to the World Cup, but I’m not sure what difference that made.” ~ David Beckham
- “I feel I have grown up. I am a man. It’s important in my football too. When everything is good, I don’t think you grow up fantastically, I think maybe you need a few problems to grow up. It is good if people in England have started to admire me. I think I have changed a little since the World Cup. I am stronger with my mentality and with my game as well.” ~ Cristiano Ronaldo
- “It’s like a rugby team. If you’re picking for the World Cup final, you’re picking experience with youth. Everything is better off having that balance and that mix. I think that, especially, goes for the monarchy as well.” ~ Prince William
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“Even if you’ve been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities.” ~ Daley Thompson
- “The whole kiss-and-tell thing is a negative approach that often happens in a World Cup. We will see negative stories about the players and it can affect their confidence and the overall performance of the national team on the pitch, let alone the bid to actually stage the competition.” ~ Gary Lineker
- “That makes me think of the 2002 World Cup Final above all else. Nobody thought at the time that our team would get through to the Final against Brazil. We should remember that this summer.” ~ Angela Merkel
- “It has been very good here, but the World Cup game was different. It had a different significance to it.” ~ Sachin Tendulkar
- “My No. 1 goal, and what I’ve spent my entire life striving to achieve is to win a World Cup. I want to retire so badly with that World Cup, but if I don’t, then I’ll retire knowing that I’ve done everything I could to get it.” ~ Hope Solo
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“When the Olympics and World Cups come around, that’s when you see the real outpouring of support that there really is for female football.” ~ Hope Solo
- “My life goes in four-year cycles. The World Cup is every four years and the Olympics are every four years.” ~ Hope Solo
- “The truth is that I don’t have a favourite goal. I remember important goals more than I do favourite goals, like goals in the Champions League where I had the opportunity to have scored in both finals I have played in. Finals in the World Cup or Copa del Rey are the ones that have stayed with me for longer or that I remember more.” ~ Lionel Messi
- “There’s nothing quite like a World Cup.” ~ Michael Owen
- “The World Cup is every four years, so it’s going to be a perennial problem.” ~ Gary Lineker
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“I like a lot of sports. Especially football – it’s my favourite sport. My uncle played football in Barcelona for nine years and played for Spain in three World Cups.” ~ Rafael Nadal
- “Being a competitor, you always believe you can come back. I’ll be up at 3 in the morning watching World Cup races in my hotel whether I’m in Asia on a business trip or in New York City and have to get up in 2 hours.” ~ Apolo Ohno
- “The boy can do anything, but to be the star of the World Cup you have got to get to the final and win it!” ~ Alan Hansen
- “Now, you’ll have to answer my questions.” “Oh, very well,” Set said. “I like Brazil for the World Cup. I’d advise investing in platinum and small-cap funds. And your lucky numbers this week are 2, 13–” “Not those questions!” Menshikov snapped.” ~ Rick Riordan
- “I am not an expert in this field but I do try to keep up to date with the Bundesliga. And I do follow World Cups and European Championships more closely.” ~ Angela Merkel
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“I never thought I’d play soccer past high school, so to go from that team to actually being most-capped and three World Cups is pretty special.” ~ Cobi Jones
- “In fact, if you were interested in a global platform there are only three sporting events: probably the most powerful – or equally powerful [to F1] – are the World Cup and the Olympics, and then Formula One. And there it gets interesting.” ~ Martin Sorrell
- “You know the marathon in my country is just exceptional. It’s like soccer in England. If England win the world cup and Ethiopia win the marathon – it’s the same.” ~ Haile Gebrselassie
- “I think everyone around the world knows the tools are there in England’s armoury to do well in a World Cup. The challenge is to go out there and prove it.” ~ Steven Gerrard
- “I really got into the cricket and staying up late watching the World Cup.” ~ Jeremy London
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“I played against the Brazilians in ’82, who were definitely the best team never to have won the World Cup.” ~ Alan Hansen
- “The water here in Cardiff is much easier than in London, so for us it is more relaxing paddling here. This race is for us a continuation of our training, we will compete in only this World cup. We don’t want to travel too much before the Olympic Games and we want to focus on the Games.” ~ Pavol Hochschorner
- “At the Cardiff World Cup I really would like to make the final. The favorites are still Peter, Daniele or Vavra, but I will try to do my best in order to be closest as possible to these athletes.” ~ Benjamin Boukpeti
- “The reason why Indian bowling has done exceptionally well in this World Cup is MS Dhoni. When we wrote them off, he kept supporting them. When they were struggling, only he was standing by his bowlers.” ~ V. V. S. Laxman
- “The important thing for me was that the World Cup should travel round the world.” ~ Sepp Blatter
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“I wish I could play the World Cup; thats one of my dreams.” ~ Gabriel Basso
- “As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasnt made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different.” ~ Daniel Alarcon
- “Officials from the soccer organization FIFA, which decides which cities get to host the World Cup, are accused of accepting bribes when making their decision. Of course the toughest part for the soccer officials was taking bribes without using their hands.” ~ Jimmy Fallon
- “The World Cup must remain the number one competition, because it is our only source of money and, with that money, we can develop football in the whole world.” ~ Sepp Blatter
- “I’ve always been proud to represent my country, whether it be World Cups, European Championships or just friendly games, I’ve always been a proud person, I’m very patriotic.” ~ David Beckham
- “To play in the World Cup and try to win something for England was the ultimate.” ~ Peter Shilton
