50 Inspiring Soccer Quotes That Capture the Spirit of the Beautiful Game | OneFootball

Soccer may be the world’s most popular sport, with billions of people across the globe both watching and playing the beautiful game.

But it isn’t just about 22 players kicking a ball around a pitch. Soccer is about so much more than goals and glory.

It’s about teamwork, passion, discipline, joy, and inspiration—qualities that extend far beyond the pitch. For fans, the game fuels daily routines, sparks ambition, and brings people together through shared emotion and love for the sport.

With that in mind, here are 50 of the best soccer quotes ever—from the deeply philosophical to the hilariously lighthearted—that capture the spirit of the game and why exactly it means so much to so many.

Inspirational Soccer Quotes

Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola (center) speaks with Marty Edelman and AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale. / Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

1. "In football, the worst things are excuses. Excuses mean you cannot grow or move forward.”––Pep Guardiola.

2. "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do."––Pelé.

3. "If you want special results, you have to feel special things and do special things together. You can speak about spirit, or you can live it.”––Jürgen Klopp.

4. “Once you bid farewell to discipline, you say goodbye to success.”––Sir Alex Ferguson.

6. “It’s hard to beat somebody that never gives up.”––Megan Rapinoe.

7. “The secret is to believe in your dreams; in your potential that you can be like your star, keep searching, keep believing and don’t lose faith in yourself.”––Neymar Jr.

8. "The fear of losing is sometimes greater than the will to win."––Emma Hayes.

9. "Everybody has a talent, but it's what you do with it that makes it great."––Alex Morgan.

10. "You have to fight to reach your dream. You have to sacrifice and work hard for it."––Lionel Messi.

Funny Soccer Quotes

Jose Mourinho is the king of funny soccer quotes. / IMAGO/Pond5 Images

11. “Look, I'm a coach, I'm not Harry Potter. He is magical, but in reality, there is no magic. Magic is fiction and football is real.”––José Mourinho.

12. “Apparently, when you head a football, you lose brain cells, but it doesn’t bother me. I’m a horse. No one’s proved it yet have they?”––David May.

13. “I’ve had 14 bookings this season; eight of which were my fault, but seven of which were disputable.”––Paul Gascoigne.

14. "I couldn't settle in Italy; it was like living in a foreign country."––Ian Rush.

16. “The World Cup is a truly international event.”––John Motson.

17. "Their football, Arsenal, is on another level, but Spurs are fighting like beavers."––Chris Kamara.

18. "We didn’t underestimate them, but they were a lot better than we thought."––Bobby Robson.

19. “If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.”––Terry Venables.

20. "We must have had 99% of the game. It was the other three percent that cost us the match."––Ruud Gullit.

Quotes About Teamwork and Perseverance

Diego Maradona. / Colorsport/IMAGO

21. "A team is not made up of isolated individuals. Always stay in the group. This way you have the strength of the group and you have the strength of the individual."––Diego Maradona.

22. “No individual can win a game by himself.”––Pelé.

23. "Football is simple. But nothing is more difficult than playing simple football."––Johan Cruyff.

24. “Geese always support each other. When a goose gets injured two birds always accompany it down to the ground. Just as geese do, we must support each other.”––Emma Hayes.

26. “Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.”––Mia Hamm.

27. "A champion is someone who does not settle for that day's practice, that day's competition, that day's performance. They are always striving to be better. They don't live in the past."––Briana Scurry.

28. "I start early and I stay late, day after day, year after year, it took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success.”––Lionel Messi.

29. “The reason I succeed is because I’ve never been afraid to fail.”––David Beckham.

30. "Don't be scared to be ambitious. It's not a humiliation to have a high target and to fail. For me, the real humiliation is to have a target and not to give everything to reach it."––Arsène Wenger.

Bizzare Soccer Quotes

Claudio Ranieri. / IMAGO/Panoramic by PsnewZ

31. "I pay for pizza, you pay for the sausage. I am the sausageman."––Claudio Ranieri after having a sausage named in his honor.

32. "Swedish style? No. Yugoslavian style? Of course not. It has to be Zlatan-style."––Zlatan Ibrahimovic on his style of play.

33. “I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”––Mario Balotelli on celebrating goals.

34. "Some people cannot see a priest on a mountain of sugar."––Rafael Benitez talking about Roy Hodgson.

36. "I was surprised, but I always say nothing surprises me in football."––Les Ferdinand.

37. "Strangely, in slow motion replay, the ball seemed to hang in the air for even longer."––David Acfield.

38. “In 1969, I gave up women and alcohol––it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.”––George Best.

39. "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."––Eric Cantona, after kung-fu kicking a fan.

40. "I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the business. But I was in the top one."––Brian Clough on his standing.

Quotes About Passion and Love for Soccer

Cristiano Ronaldo. / IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

41. “I'm living a dream I never want to wake up from.”––Cristiano Ronaldo.

42. "Football is an art like dancing is an art, but only when it's well done does it become an art."––Arsene Wenger.

43. “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting.”––George Orwell.

44. “Football is a universal language. It brings people together. irrespective of their nationalities, cultures or beliefs.”––George Weah.

46. “Play for the name on the front of the shirt, and they will remember the name on the back.”––Tony Adams.

47. “Football is not just a game; it’s an art form. You have to be creative, think outside the box, and always be one step ahead of your opponent.”––Ronaldinho.

48. “Football is the ballet of the masses.”––Dmitri Shostakovich.