High Level Competition Quotes

All the guys at this top level, they're pretty much dangerous all over the place. If you're not good all over the place, you'll be in a little bit of trouble. It's hard to swim at the top end if you're only good at one thing.

From a personal point of view, when you're hitting the back of the net at Premier League level people recognize that you're doing something right.

It is hard if you have got family and kids and you have to leave them on Christmas Day to go and train but listen, we are a small minority of lucky players. We have obviously worked hard for this, but we are lucky enough to have the ability to play in the Premier League.

I always wanted to play against the best.

The higher up the rugby ladder you go, the differences between winning and losing games get smaller and smaller.

I've played with and against great players. I've been with Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and played against Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jaque Kallis and Virat Kohli is up there with the very best.

People think that the Club World Cup is an easy competition, but it's not.

I've been All-Pro first-team twice.

It's no disgrace to play against the world's champions and lose by one service break in the last two sets.

Just to be in the locker room with the NHL players, go out to dinner with them, hang out with them. I feel like it was an invaluable experience and kind of like going to Harvard law school, I guess, because that's the best education you could get being around guys like that.

It's one thing to make the big leagues, but it's another thing to make it to an all-star game.

I think 'A' sides are extremely important, as close as you can get to international cricket. You are often playing against internationals from different countries and it definitely bridges the gap between our domestic game and international cricket.

I'm experienced. I've played at the highest level for a long time and done a lot of things in the game.

You don't need to spoon-feed bowlers at the international level.

When you get to the big leagues, the talent pool is on such a level playing field, you have to find a way to separate yourself from incredibly talented guys. Especially when you go through the injuries that I've had, you come back, and you might not physically be able to do some of the things you used to do.

There's a difference between hurting when you lose and being a bad loser. You don't compete at the highest level of sport to feel comfortable about losing, but you behave in a civil way when it goes wrong because that is the flip side.

Playing Bayern is never easy.

In the Champions League, you can focus on a single game and play in exactly the style you need.

When you get into the Finals, I don't think anybody is completely healthy.

Coming out of high school, I think it was good for me instead of going to college because college and the NBA are two different things. You can dominate on the college level, but the NBA is a whole different story. The dudes that do the best are the ones who work hard.

One week, you're facing Daniel Bryan, and next week, you're teaming with AJ Styles. You're in the ring with the best in the world. Part of me wants to tell myself they don't just put anybody in the ring with them. I obviously want to be as good as them, and I feel like I can be and I can hang with them.

Hockey lends itself to special events, including the Olympic competition: a glorious tournament of the best players in the world, putting on their national jerseys and playing on big rinks with no-goon Olympic rules and referee enforcement.

At Chelsea I knew I'd improve a lot quicker around better players, world-class players.

I was kind of unproven. I didn't play in a high-profile school, and with that comes the notion that, 'He's not ready.' I felt I had questions to answer. Was I going to be ready to play against elite-level athletes?

It's a privilege and an honor to play for the national team, but I think that the training that I was in at Frankfurt was the highest level right underneath.