Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.

Personally yes I want our country to have one league. When it’s going to be one league, which we all are hearing, it has to be abiding by AFC rules.

In England, you have stadiums in the middle of the city.

I’m looking forward to the intensity of football and how the people live football in Liverpool. It’s a special club.

Nixon was a bad loser. He hated losing worse than death, and that is why I enjoyed him. We were both football fans, both addicts; and on some days, nothing else mattered.

I rate Fabien Barthez and played with two great keepers in Alex Stepney and Harry Gregg.

At the start of the season, there are 16 teams in the top division looking behind them, making sure they avoid relegation. The fear starts in the boardroom, comes down to managers and through to players. The fans sense it.

I’m really a normal football manager.

I make impact plays. I make game-changing plays.

To share the dressing room of club and country with Bhai was an amazing experience. I learnt a lot from him and other senior players like Renedy Singh.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

Football is a contact sport. So, on the pitch, it isn’t possible to maintain distance like you can in an office job.

In my heart, I am always a Raider.

There is something special which rides on a game between Liverpool and United.

WIth football you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren’t playing so well, you don’t have to turn those two game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.

I look at athletes in all sports and try to picture what kind of football player they’d be, what position they’d play and so on.

I’ve met some Evertonians in the street, and they’ve been friendly. I’ve had taxi drivers who have been Everton fans. They’ve been really nice.

I always thought about working in England because of the kind of football, the intensity of football. Liverpool was first choice.

I didn’t play soccer; I played that other football in grade school through college.

I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing. So if I’m playing basketball, if I’m taking the SATs, like, there’s a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it’s the same thing.

The most important 6 inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

When I was playing, there were always lots of teams in contention for the league – Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds. Every week was a big game and a big battle.

The emotion to handle the pressure is one of the biggest challenges in football – it’s the top challenge.

You’re not going to see my sense of humor on the football field. That’s not a place for me to joke around.

I support Real Madrid. I’m a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.

I am happy and proud to play for my country and my club Mohun Bagan.

When I was a kid, I never thought much about football. I thought about following in my family’s footsteps and going into professional wrestling.

When I signed up for BFC, then-coach Ashley Westwood wanted me to play on the left as an attacking midfielder. I was not sure initially but I believed in his vision. For the first six-seven games, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was like a headless chicken. But he kept backing me.

Without sounding biased, 70 days of football is not enough. Even if Messi plays 70 days he cannot be in the national team. You need to play around the year to be in contention for the national team.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

As long as I am playing competitive football I am happy.

He is really something. I love him. He is Sir Arsene Wenger.

As a part of the NFL, things change every year.

Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world, and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United – on the left wing! My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes. Central midfield is Shinji’s best role.

We want to play the AFC Cup every year.

It all went wrong with football, the thing I loved most of all, and from there, my life slowly fell apart.

I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.

If you made me the national commissioner of football, I’d tell you one thing that I would mandate. The second Saturday in September, we’re going to have conference day. Everybody from the SEC plays a Big 12 team. Everybody from the Big Ten is going to play the ACC. Everybody from the Big East is going to play the Pac-10.

The English game is not faster than the German game. Perhaps there are a few more sprints. But there is a different style of football here, partially due to the weather.

If you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.

In football, it’s the job of the player to play, the coach to coach, the official to officiate. Each guy is charged with upholding his end, nothing more. In golf, the player, coach and official are rolled into one, and they overlap completely. Golf really is the best microcosm of life – or at least the way life should be.

Yes, it is one of my ultimate aims – it is the ultimate sense of football: to make the people happy, to let them live some emotions that you usually can’t get.

If someone told me I could play two Asian Cup finals, I wouldn’t have believed it.

What is Champions League level? I saw a lot of rubbish games at Champions League level.

We murdered them 0-0.

I love football and the intensity of football in Liverpool, this is what is very good for me.

I’ve married somebody who I knew for 14 years. So, I’m just living with a friend. All through my ups and downs in football, from winning the I-League to losing the ISL final, she has been a source of great support.

I was saluted by Alex Ferguson when I was subbed and that made me very happy.

The joy and love that I get from playing football are unbelievable. It is such a feeling that I want to give everything that I have got. I just enjoy it, I am living a life that I never even dreamt of.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

The intensity of the football and how the people live football in Liverpool – it is not a usual.

In England, football is a big thing to talk about, but Liverpool, it’s a special place. You feel it when you make your first step.

Nothing surprises me anymore in the NFL.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.

It obviously bothers people when Real Madrid win. It makes them jealous. There isn’t a level playing field.

After the 12th class exam results, I got a call from Mohun Bagan. They saw me at Durand Cup when I was playing for City Club of Delhi. I thought they might want me for SAIL Academy. Never ever I thought Mohun Bagan is calling me for Mohun Bagan!

My biggest competitor was my mum. I used to try to beat her at Chinese chequers, chess, carrom, volleyball, badminton, football, wrestling.

So like any football or basketball coach, you always always believe you’re going to win.