Athletic Maturity Quotes

In my day, 20-year-olds already had 150 first-team appearances under their belts.

The young athletes are supposed to mature, to improve their personality.

I always knew that my best tennis was going to be in my late 20s.

I don't think I was ready for the Premier League until I was 24 at Southampton.

People aren't winning Slams at 21 anymore. It's later.

If I'd gone straight to the NBA, I don't think I would have been ready as a player or a person.

I played pretty well in my twenties, don't get me wrong! But my consistency is better [in my thirties], my momentum is better, my wins are quicker.

No parent or coach can be true to any child and say he's ready for the N.F.L. out of high school.

Our job is to find players younger, where they are able to play from 11 years old and grow up playing the game. Rather than, you start playing when you are 17 or 18 and you don't get the opportunity to do anything with your career.

It wasn't really until the 10th or 11th grade when I started to play well, and football took the place of baseball, which was my love when I was five years old. I don't know what happened; baseball just got boring to me, I guess.

I think the age of 27 to 28 is ideal for the Salvadoran player to play qualifiers. That's why we've brought players who are between 23 and 24. I think in three years, they'll be well-armed to play qualifiers.

Eventually, I think I'll probably end up at centre-half. By the time I get to 28 or 29, I imagine I'll be a defender.

I actually think if you have a strong junior class, that's the best possible scenario. In their senior year, guys who are on the threshold of making it to the NBA start getting preoccupied in their thoughts elsewhere more than concerning themselves with the present. The junior class is the perfect age.

Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory. I believe we were more mature then...Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport...In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it.

I can say I am playing some of the best football of my career at 31. So maybe I can play better as I get older.

When I talk about the early years in Oakland, I don't want to take anything away from who that player was, because that player was still a heck of a player, that player was just young. I played off the field the same way that I played on the field.

As cricketers we're judged on the average we have from being a 21-year-old who's just come into international cricket to the day you retire.