Top 104 Quotes & Sayings by Marco van Basten
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Dutch manager Marco van Basten.
Last updated on September 14, 2024.
Ronaldo is a great player. But those who claim that he is stronger than Messi do not understand football or are in bad faith.
I like that about the English people. They are sharp.
I'm not a good manager.
I have worked with Johan Cruyff, with Rinus Michels, with Arrigo Sacchi and with Fabio Capello.
Am I too critical on Torres and Drogba because I used to be a striker myself? I don't think so.
I think it's strange to change the turf three days before a match.
I think the person I learnt the most from as a coach was Cruyff because he was always talking about tactics - how to play, where to play and when to play. I think that helps a lot of young players, which is good. He was the most important trainer for me.
Leonardo left Milan on bad terms, but I did not.
I don't like friendly matches.
I think my gymnastic background helped a great deal with my agility when I took up football seriously.
Cruyff was one of the best, he was my hero and my example. He was a star at the same time as George Best, fantastic to watch. I knew him later on, he became my trainer, my adviser, my team-mate, my opponent. It was easier for me to play with him than to speak to him.
There was a moment in 1996 I had to say: 'I have to try to get healthy.' We made a decision to fuse my ankle. For a sportsman, and I was still only 32, that's the worst choice. But I had to stop the pain.
Maybe an orange card could be shown that sees a player go out of the game for 10 minutes for incidents that are not heavy enough for a red card.
Shootouts are spectacular for the viewers and they are interesting for the players.
It was great that Cruyff believed in me so much when I was taken on at Ajax. As a coach, Cruyff also had a clear vision, which enabled him to create a better team.
They are not the same - Xavi is more the man of passing and Iniesta can dribble more - but they have great vision, they are important to the defence and the attack.
When you get older and more open and more honest, it is easier to show yourself how you really are.
As a coach, I felt I couldn't offer what I should offer. That made things too difficult for me. It was specifically my problem. I couldn't do it. I kept suffering from stress. I was the one who needed to take the decisions. Everybody's looking at you. 'What, when, who, how and where?'
When you accept the captaincy, you accept the responsibilities that come with it.
As a manager you have to be positive to your guys, as a father to his sons, and that was one thing I really didn't have.
We must keep looking for ways to improve the game.
Premier League clubs have a lot of money, that's why they're strong and have a lot of good players.
I do some business and work for television, talking about football.
Some players have 18 years in football. But some players are injured before they start. When I thought like that I said: 'If I compare with that I have been very lucky. At least I had 10 years of a beautiful experience that changed my life for ever.'
Messi is unique. Inimitable and unrepeatable. Like him, one every fifty years. As a child, he fell into the pot of the football genius.
When I became the assistant, I was intelligent and helpful. I had patience. As the head coach I was completely the opposite. I made a good decision to get out.
It is hard to play 10 against 11, let alone with eight or nine.
Sometimes you have an exceptional international team, such as Spain in 2010, but club football is better.
For quality and excitement the Champions League is better than the World Cup.
I want a healthy atmosphere around my team, not problems.
Rooney is the man.
I had nice years at Ajax, wonderful years with Milan, and won something with the national team.
As a player, you play and you have much more influence. As a manager, you talk about the game all week with every player and all of a sudden when it starts, your influence is so small and it was very difficult for me to accept that.
I saw Cruyff at 36 and the way he played was interesting because he was so quick to understand situations. Football can still be very nice at that age because even though you are not as strong or as quick, you can still see things that others see two seconds later.
If I don't get enough attention, I want more attention. If I have too much attention, I want it to stop. It is not always easy to understand myself.
Football should be a pleasure.
All the pain I had, it was not worth it. My ankle created so many problems, it affected my day-to-day living. But at that time football was my whole life. Now I am older, I have had a life without football. You can still have a good life - there is more than football.
In football you need opponents, competition because if you are alone with two or three clubs controlling everything you don't have any competition.
I worked hard at it, because I find being a coach a great and interesting job.
I think it can be very interesting watching a game without offside.
The spectators want to see action, goals, tackles.
I played against Maradona and he was a great player like Messi too.
There's a big difference between being a footballer and being a coach.
My first dream as a young boy was to be a gymnast and my first memory of football is of watching Ajax win the European Cup in 1971. It was a time when a great philosophy was being developed at Ajax, making rounded players who were there as a complete team rather than as 11 individuals.
They abolished the off-side rule in field hockey and there were no problems.
It is a contact sport. Being tough is also part of the game.
It's not easy being the first man as a trainer.
Lewandowski reminds me a bit of me. I was a bit of a mix of him and Ronaldo. I also understood playing with the others and I could give assists.
After two good and interesting years I decided to put an end to my duty at FIFA, mainly to be able to spend more time with my family in Amsterdam.
Xavi has won the Champions League three times, the European Championship twice and the World Cup. He's a real football player, a man who focuses on his football, hard work and training instead of the glamour, and that is why he has stayed at such a high level for so long.
I hope to be able to give my contribution to ensure that football remains the number one sport in the world.
We want to have a game which is honest, which is dynamic, a nice spectacle so we should try to do everything to help that process.
Sacchi was a good coach. He wanted to play pressure football. The good thing was that he created a good group with lots of discipline. Working together was the key. You had to do your work to help the team and that was all important.
I have a nice life.
Football is spectacular and it has to stay spectacular in every sense.
If you are not forced to change, then there are no reasons to change.
I can train players and talk about football. But losing as a manager was so painful, I couldn't live with it.
We all love this sport. That's why I will work hard to develop football technically in the way that our sport will give to the fans and the players always emotions and joy.
Rooney has to remember he is an icon and an example to youth.
When you are a good player you want to play every week.
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