Ball Mastery Quotes

At Barca we trained every day with the ball. I hardly even took a step running without a ball at my feet.

Look at the best dribblers in the world, Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta, and the ball seems to stick to their foot, so I can work on that when I am dribbling.

So along with that is spending a lot of time with the ball. For me it was, I loved to juggle the ball in my front yard, and I always challenged myself - how many juggles can I get today? I think for players to get better, it's just about spending the time.

Sometimes a little kid will come up to me and ask me to show him some tricks. I always have to say: 'I can't do any tricks.' They want to see some sort of magic: keepie-uppies, around-the-worlds, that sort of thing. It's not really my strength.

My father always told me I like the ball more than I like playing soccer: since I was a young kid, I was always skilled with it, dribbling furniture around the house. That's how I see football - fun and dynamic - and this goes beyond me; it's a characteristic of Brazilian football.

In general, I like to always be in contact with the ball.

Maradona, yes! Diego was very fast, with good skills and brilliant dribbling. Many players are fast but cannot control the ball, but he was amazing.