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Q & A

Football's biggest stars in the hot seat

Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale

"There was the odd head-in-hands when the team was announced with me in it, but it was all a bit of banter..."

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Ronaldo

"I don't want to be remembered as just another player. I want to mark an era. I want to go down in the history of world football"
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Andres Iniesta

"I don't need to think or look to know where Xavi will be or what he's going to do"
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Sir Alex Ferguson

Winning a trophy doesn't mean anything to me after it's gone"
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Nikica Jelavic

"England always fail. It’s always the same: they aim high, but end up disappointed"
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David Luiz

"What areas do I need to work on? All of them"
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Roman Shirokov

"Why doesn't Dick Advocaat kiss everyone who scores?!"
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Jakub Blaszczykowski

"I wouldn't like Szczesny to be the biggest star of our team. Let the goalkeepers remain in the shadows!"
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Petr Cech

"All the teams can beat everybody. Every single goal will be decisive"
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Georgios Samaras

"If you want personal glory, you should play tennis or golf"
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Nigel de Jong

"I think there'll be one or two shock results, but we’ll have to wait and see what they are..."
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Per Mertesacker

"We’re putting ourselves under pressure, but the team is quite capable of lifting a trophy"
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Hugo Almeida

"My personal ambition is just to win the title"
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Nicklas Bendtner

"I'm happy to have goalscoring responsibilities. I enjoy the pressure. That’s my job"
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Santi Cazorla

Every day the idea is clearer: it’s all about the ball, touch, passing, possession..."
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Giorgio Chiellini

"After the experience at the World Cup, in a so-called easy group, better for us to be in the strongest one…"
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Ruslan Rotan

"If we get out of the group, anything is possible. Let's see what happens..."
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Shane Long

"The main thing is to do the jersey proud and come back with no regrets. It’s the Irish way"
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Yohan Cabaye

"We've beaten Germany, England and Brazil. We can beat the biggest countries in the world"
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Sebastian Larsson

"We missed out on the last World Cup so we want to make up for lost time"
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Lionel Messi

"I’m not obsessed with scoring a lot of goals. If we carry on winning titles, scoring goals is secondary..."
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Scott Parker

"The English mentality is to work hard and try your best. The fans get everything from me and 
I think they appreciate that..."
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Roger Milla

"Our tactics for that opening match were simply to shut out Maradona..."
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Asamoah Gyan

"Ghana have a really strong team this year - and the fact that some of the strongest teams haven't qualified gives us an even better chance"
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Hope Powell

"If someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse, I'd manage a men's team"
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Samir Nasri

"I probably shouldn't say this, but the atmosphere at White Hart Lane is very, very good"
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Nikola Zigic

"Serbia have proved we can play against anyone and be equal to any great team"
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Filippo Inzaghi

"I was born with 
a ball in my head. I studied just to make my mum and dad proud..."
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Eduardo

"In Rio, things are quieter. They’ve heard of me, but don’t know my face..."
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Salomon Kalou

"If we win then everything goes off back at home. When we lose, people are mad and upset"
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Mesut Ozil

"Turkey will always be a special country for me but I did not doubt my decision to play for Germany - ever"
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Andrew Boyens

"If we don't try and get out of our group then we are basically just going for a holiday - and we're definitely not there for that"
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Stanislav Sestak

"The problem with the English is that they don't do well in tournaments. That's why I'd choose other teams ahead of them to win"
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Nelson Valdez

"I slept under the stand at one of my clubs for two years. But if you have nothing, what can they steal?"
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Luis Fabiano

"I disagree with the people who say we're a defensive team under Dunga. We always play with the ball - always"
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Ahn Young-Hak

"I want to play with a challenging spirit and a never-say-die attitude whilst playing with full commitment"
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Simao

"It's always the same in Portugal: they expect us to reach the final. That level of expectation is not easy"
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Maynor Figueroa

"I like Wigan. I've tried a pie. I like to try different cultures, but I don't eat so many pies"
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Mark Gonzalez

"Steven Gerrard is a great player. I wouldn't be surprised if England reached the final"
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Johan Vonlanthen

"Yes, I can speak seven languages. It can be a great help in understanding opponents"
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Fabio Cannavaro

"We are nearly all over 30, but qualified with a game to spare. It isn't the old guard's fault if the upcoming generation doesn't improve"
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Wayne Rooney

One player doesn’t make a team, we have a lot of players who can win a match out of nothing, not just me"
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Tim Cahill

"We’re a pretty battle-hardened bunch and we’re going to give it our best shot..."
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John Paintsil

"Do I really believe an African team can win the World Cup? Yes, I do. And we will win our group"
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Aurelien Chedjou

"This is going to be a World Cup where every single team boasts at least one world-class player"
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Daniel Jensen

"Rooney is nothing without Gerrard"
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Shunsuke Nakamura

"I do know some English, but I could not understand what people spoke in Glasgow. I needed a translator"
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Eljero Elia

"I don't feel pressure. Never"
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Oleg Salenko

"That’s the great thing about the World Cup – if you do something spectacular you'll be remembered forever"
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Theofanis Gekas

"Our supporters are the best in the world. They are so colourful and passionate"
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Obafemi Martins

"There's no point saying what you're going to do - you have to go there and do it"
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Chu Young-Park

"It's really even between ourselves, Nigeria and Greece - I don't see any difference in quality"
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Karim Matmour

"England sometimes struggle in tournaments, but this time they have a manager with experience"
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Zlatko Dedic

"Anything can happen in football, but we will feel we have won the World Cup if we reach the second round"
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Jozy Altidore

"I'd love to see some of the European teams go to Mexico City at altitude and try to qualify"
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Gonzalo Higuain

"It's stupid that people question Messi - whenever he plays, he tries to give everything for Argentina..."
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Steven Pienaar

"I played the Ajax way with Ibrahimovic, Sneijder and Van der Vaart"
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Andres Guardado

"We had a bad patch with Eriksson as coach. It was difficult for him to adapt to Mexican football..."
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Diego Forlan

"If we won the World Cup it would be biggest party Montevideo has ever seen. It would last a week."
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Didier Deschamps

Jacques Chirac must have said something as he handed over the World Cup, but I was in my own little world..."
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Yoann Gourcuff

"When you look at them one by one, England have a lot of players with great individual talents - it’s just a case of them trying to reach some kind of harmony..."
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Yordan Letchkov

"A player can only dream about receiving such love and passion from people"
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Gheorghe Hagi

"With our style of play, we could have beaten Brazil"
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Alexi Lalas

"I burnt both ends of the candle – and I don't regret it at all”
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Salvatore Schillaci

"At that moment everything went mad. I started running and leapt on to Stefano Tacconi..."
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Gary Lineker

“It boils down to them being jammy”
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Ray Houghton

"Suits? Ireland didn't have suits!"
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Colombia's Birdman

"I had to balance up the options: whether I wanted to be Colombia’s No.1 fan or be a lawyer"
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Emilio Butragueno

"If only I could have scored three against Denmark and saved the other one for Belgium..."
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Josimar

"I told Santana he was trying to fit a square peg in a round hole – and that he should pick me"
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Gary Lineker

"The pitches were crappy, there were tiny crowds and it was 40-degree heat..."
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Hugo Sanchez

"I didn’t like missing penalties, of course, but it was good in one way because it showed everyone I was only human..."
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Paolo Rossi

There were problems with the press, the usual supporters’ expectations...let's just say that it was a very unique and intense atmosphere"
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Alan Rough

"It did seem like the Brazilians thought, “Och, we’d better get a couple of goals, then!'"
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Norman Whiteside

"I was given the No.16 shirt to throw reporters off the scent"
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Socrates

"There's a need for people who instigate thinking, who don't accept the status quo. I wish more people had that attitude"
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Steven Gerrard

"We weren’t consistent enough over the whole campaign. With the players we’ve got, we should have not just qualified, but won the group."
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Gianluigi Buffon

"I was a striker until I was 13, then one day I was asked to go in goal and four years later I was playing in Serie A..."
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Fabio Cannavaro

"It's not a nice feeling when the media goes on more about Zidane than the fact we'd won the World Cup"
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Fernando Torres

"You can’t switch off for a minute. Every time you get the ball, there’s a chance of scoring..."
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Wayne Rooney

"Jamie Carragher? I can just about understand him myself, so I don’t know what it’s like for Liverpool’s foreign players..."
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Cristiano Ronaldo

“Everyone does what he has to do for his country and I did what I had to do.”
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Fabio Capello

"It's very important that the players know I respect them all equally, but I can't treat them all the same because they don’t all respond in the same way"
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Raul

"Not everybody who sleeps up a mountain is a great sportsman!"
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Robinho

"Capello’s style wasn’t right for Real. We won but we didn’t win beautifully. The fans pay to see a spectacle..."
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Kaka

"I think it was God – he saved me from something worse.”
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Theo Walcott

"Thierry Henry would blow me away over 100 metres, but make it a little shorter and it might be a different story..."
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Melanie Slade

"The Beckhams invited us round for tea! I didn’t know what to wear. I think it was jean hot pants and something from Claire’s..."
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Cesc Fabregas

"If I get something wrong, if I play badly, if I fail, I like people to have a go at me for it"
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Ruud van Nistelrooy

"Rooney? I haven’t seen a young player as good as he is"
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Samuel Eto'o

"Out of every 100 stones that you throw you never know which one will kill the bird"
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Lennart Johansson

"People say that Platini is the FIFA president’s puppet, but I think Blatter may have made a rod for his own back..."
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Joey Barton

“They were right to call me a thug in the papers”
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Fernando Torres
Fernando Torres