A Quote by Marco van Basten

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.
I think before the kids, this was different - when I came home it was football, football, football all the time, every day. Now I have another balance in my life.
All my life my priority was football, football, football. I was just fully focused on that and when my kids were born that focus changed gradually. I had something in my life that changed my perspective. You experience something that is more important than win, lose or draw.
My whole life has always been football and that only. Since I was six years old, I've only really thought about football. I used to watch it on TV, play video games, and so on. I just love football. Some people joke that I am too into it, but football just sums up my life.
Oftentimes, even myself as I've come through my entire career from high school all the way up here, everything has been football, football, football. And then you realize that life is much bigger than this game, especially when you start thinking about life after football and what you want to leave behind.
I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I never really had a job. I was a football player, then a football coach, then a football broadcaster. It's been my life. Pro football has been my life since 1967. I've enjoyed every part of it. Never once did it ever feel like work.
I've played so many games of football now, and even though it is at a higher level, at the end of the day, football is football. You are just playing with better players.
I don't judge my self-worth as a football player. Football is something I love. It's a fun career deal, but it's not what I want to do with my life, because I see football as a game.
The beginning of a career is hard for many players, often because of the ordinary day-to-day problems that football and life bring.
Before, I would spend all my hours at training, come home, sleep, eat, watch football, sleep, and go back to training the next day. Now I do the school run, train, pick up my daughter. I am living in the real world. I am a father now. That has given me more satisfaction than football.
There are a lot of guys who football is all they have. And I love football to death, it got me here, it's what I've been doing since I was nine years old, but football ends at a point in time and you've got to be prepared for life after football.
I love the game just as much as anybody else. But at the same time, I also understand that life is more than football, too. People might get that misconstrued sometimes, too, that I don't care because I'm not die-hard football, eat, sleep and drink it all day and all night.
I am a football fan, I've watched football my whole life. When my favourite team didn't do well I'd get angry.
Football became my obvious metaphor as it does for many, and I began to equate this as being 'halftime' in my life. As I reflected on my professional life I realized how much time I had spent trying to make first downs and score touchdowns. My focus had now changed into trying to be more about people and serving others.
I didn't realise how my life was changing. When I was 17, 18, 20, I didn't realise how big football was and everything around football. How many people live for football and love football. I was a professional, but I was a supporter.
I understood I had to be good at school so I could play football in my free time. Usually, by the time I came home from school, I already had all my things ready for the next day, so I could put my bag on the side and go straight out to play football with my friends!
I watch football every day of my life and I've always watched football every day of my life.
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