World Cup’s best quotes, part I
Either we refer to the players or coaches, press conferences can produce both plenty of wisdom and much cleverness among the football-men’s speeches. This is why a best quote list is been already prepared. From “hands of devil” to the “romantics” and “octopuses” are just a few references to which especially the coaches referred while describing their tactics and manners of playing. Before quoting, it has to be mentioned that barely can provide a “best quote” first place because all of the following statements deserve it.France’s captain Patrice Evra declared his mates feel like small nation players because of the early exit: “We feel like a small footballing nation and it hurts. There’s nothing to say other than it’s a catastrophe,” while French Federation director Jean Louis Valentin left South Africa after the players refused to train due to striker’s Nicholas Anelka bad tactics protest to the coach Domenech: “They don’t want to train, it’s a scandal. I’m resigning, I’m leaving the Federation. I have nothing more to do here. I’m going back to Paris.” Apart from insight scandals, there were also delusions regarding certain defeats bit teams suffered during the tournament. The most representative speech in this way belonged to Maradona who couldn’t explain how a shameful 4-0 defeat against Germany was possible: „This was (like) a punch from Muhammad Ali. I have no strength for anything. The day I quit playing football could (have been) similar but this is much harder.”
Former Brazilian coach Dunga claimed the media is never satisfied with manner Brazilians win when they do it if isn’t put it on a spectacle: “We always have to win but even when we win, they are not happy because we didn’t put on a show. If we put on a show, they are not happy because we didn’t score six or seven goals. If we score six or seven goals, then they say that the opposition was no good.” One of the most humoristic statements belonged though to referee’s Howard Webb wife who declared his housband barely takes care of his children as for the footballers he’s doing a very good job: „He can’t take charge of his own children. I don’t know how he manages it on a football pitch.”
As for romance, Brazil lover Felipe Melo declared that despite his face looks morelike a bad guy, he’s a very calm person in everyday life: „I’m an old romantic. People may think I have a bad face, but I like to send cards and flowers to my wife and I like to receive them as well.” Finally, one of Uruguay’s coach statements referred to football’s unpredictability, mentioning that you cannot be sure of the next match success unless you treat it seriously even if a small football-nation is to be confronted. Oscar Tabarez noticed South Korea’s defence problems right before their knockout stage confrontation began, declaring: “Football is like a short blanket, it either covers your head or it covers your feet.”
As one can observe, every each of the statements quoted above brings a sort of cleverness that football apparently isn’t able to provide, but nevertheless they exist and that makes extra-sportsmen (specifically football-men) more delightful to watch. To be continued…11
