The Week in Quotes
"In Portugal they say that you can change everything except your mum and your football club. I understand football’s power – socially, politically and culturally – but how can a footballer be in Forbes magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world? It’s absurd! We don’t save lives! I know that people can jump from a fifth floor because their team lost a game, but that person has problems. How can you compare a football player, a football manager, with a scientist, a doctor?”
Jose Mourinho
"As a club, collectively, we accept it wasn't good enough. I'm talking about the people at the top, from the board down, over to the tea lady – we all take responsibility.”
John Carver apportions blame for Newcastle United’s defeat in the Tyne-Wear derby to the tea lady
“Van Gaal is closer to the devil than anything else.”
Diego Maradona
"I didn't even watch the draw – I just knew we'd get Bayern. I watched Law & Order instead on the peculiarities of the American legal system!"
Jurgen Klopp on the German DFB-Pokal semi-final draw
"When he's with Barcelona, with a team he already knows and knows well, he's a player. But Messi, when he's with the Argentinian team, is not the same thing.”
Pele
“You cannot turn a cyclist into a Ferrari driver overnight."
Gerd Zeise on his Myanmar U-20 side
"Real tried, they wanted me. I had intensive talks with Uli Hoeness, who was still president back then, and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. They told me I should not go, how the club needed me, how I was as important for Bayern as Lionel Messi was for Barcelona.”
Franck Ribery
"I went for a sleep. There was nothing else to do. I have never felt calmer than when she blew that whistle. I have experienced every single emotion over the past 24 hours. It's incredible and my mum managed to change her flights home so she could stay and watch. That was really nice."
Leah Williamson on what she did in the hours between the England women’s U-19 team game against Switzerland and the replayed last few moments of their match against Norway, and on taking ‘that’ penalty in the latter