A Quote by Patrice Evra
I have a lot to thank Italy for. It's the country that opened the door to professional football for me.
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Elizabeth's voice had a door in it. When you opened that door you found another door, and that door opened yet another door. All the doors were nice and led out of her.
In no other country is football lived like it is in Italy, almost to the point of overkill. There is too much football on TV and in the papers, there is always talk about football during the week.
Thank you to Italy. That is a crazy country but beautiful.
I love having the door opened for me. Isn't that just polite? But the key is, would you then mind if I opened the door for you? The key is, chivalry should be consensual. Both parties should be feeling good about that.
Italy will never be a normal country. Because Italy is Italy. If we were a normal country, we wouldn't have Rome. We wouldn't have Florence. We wouldn't have the marvel that is Venice.
The Italy of my children will be at head of Europe, economically. Because Italy has all the conditions to be the country of the startups, the country of artisans and quality, and the country of the big companies.
We've all heard that in life, when one door is closed, another is opened. Unfortunately, many of us are so focused on the darkness left by what has been lost, we never see the light coming through the newly opened door.
I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob.
But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.
Al Davis has been the biggest influence in my professional football life. I mean, he was a guy that gave me an opportunity, one, to get into professional football in 1967 as an assistant coach, and then at the age of 32, giving me the opportunity to be the head coach.
I've done everything. I've sung, done records, plays... It just so happened my first professional job was as a dancer. I've done the whole shebang, darling. But dancing was my first professional engagement in 1974. I got paid for it, so that was it, my vocation. But my parents weren't keen. They wanted me to be an accountant in Italy. Or a lawyer. They were furious. I had to run away. I had to leave the country.
In Italy, football is too important. There is more pressure on coaches, teams, directors. Now is not a good moment for football in Italy. The stadiums are not full. There are problems with violence; it's very difficult with the ultras. People don't go to the stadium just to enjoy 90 minutes of football. People go to the stadium to fight, to win.
There are a lot of programs, a lot of teams now that have the backing of federations, the growth of the game domestically. You see this with Holland; you see this with Italy. It's a matter of time. I had to leave my home country to go and experience the game. Now, it's delightful that these countries are actively supporting women's football.
On the one hand, having Michael as my brother has been a help. It brought me contacts and opened the door to motor racing. But to keep that door open, I would have to say it's harder for me.
I want to thank America. You opened your heart so I could enter. Thank you everybody who lives in the United States, who saw me grow into becoming a world champion.
My failures were something for me - my first contact with professional football. Though it didn't go all that well, it's not a regret, it's just like that. But looking back, those failures helped me consider football differently, consider the professional game differently.
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