Javier Zanetti Quotes

I knew I was going to be a football player; I just didn't know how. It was the only thing I was doing, the only thing that I knew. Always training, training, training, training.

If you look up what I did in Arizona, you'll see that I fought my way through training camp. I didn't have a problem fighting my teammates.

There are so many things about playing football that seem to me uniquely American. Anybody can succeed, anybody can play, but you've got to work hard to do it.

When I was playing for tips in college, I felt a fire in my soul. I had the same principle of focus that I had learned playing football.

My dad's a bodybuilder. My whole life I've been taught to train the hard way. I believe in earning strength, not buying it. My grandfather raised me old school: In baseball, you work for whatever you get.

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part.... The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

I don't know whether it's the athlete in me or the passion I have for the game: I always think that I can step back on the field and play.

I love everything about football. You can learn so much from it, from leadership qualities to discipline. This sport involves every kind of emotion.

We don't always get our respect but you've got to deal with it and go out there every week and just win football games.

To me, it's just another game of football - 11 players, a grass pitch. Regardless what shirt I have on, it's important you win the game, and I'm competitive as anyone, and I want to win every game, whether it's a Sunday league game, a five-a-side tournament, or a World Cup qualifier.

Football. It sounds simple, but it's always been the case - I don't see myself living without playing.

Now I've learned to enjoy my football while I can. Every time I'm on the pitch, I just enjoy it.

It's never nice to sit on the bench. Everybody knows it is not what you want as a professional footballer but it's about responding and coming back.

For me, in football, everything is possible, and every game is a battle.

At Juve you always have to go onto the field ready to give your best.

Playing football can be damn harsh, but every day is a fight for equality.

The game of football is something I dearly love, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

I want to play football out on the pitch. I am not different to anyone else and the ambition never changes.

That's the thing with football: you have some good games, you have some bad games but the main thing is that you go back, you recap and next week you're ready to fight again. That's the main thing.

For me, football is a quest. Quests entail overcoming hardship, trials of adversity in the pursuit of true joy.

I love to play football. And I think anybody that's ever been my teammate or I've been theirs understands how much I love that.

Soccer was probably the most fun game I've played because I never walked away feeling like I had a bad game. If you play a position in soccer where you can out-hustle or out-work or out-prepare somebody, it is a lot easier to walk away from the game and say, I gave it my all. I could always try. I could always hustle.

You play football for a reason... I am passionate about it.

That's football. It's like in any walk of life: you get some people who are going to try more than others.

I try to enjoy playing football and do my best for the team.