I have played for the national team many times, so I am used to good things – and bad things – being said about me.
I think the national team is more like a traveling circus. It’s hard to get that translation into the NWSL teams.
Any player playing at a high level is available for consideration to the women’s national team.
I have equal respect and love for both England and Ireland, and therefore, the national team I choose to represent is not a clear-cut, simple selection.
For Brazil or any other national team in the world, to play Uruguay is a commitment and a very tough match.
For Pakistan cricket to stay relevant and strong, the best players have to be available all the time – it’s a challenge faced by everyone, but one that particularly relates to us because of our mainly amateur, pretty random, and certainly too thinly spread domestic structure that feeds the national team.
Any coach in football doesn’t like national team games because it’s out of your hands; you can’t really control what’s going to happen.
From the start, the promise of Jurgen Klinsmann as manager of the U.S. men’s national team was revolution: gritty, plodding American soccer would give way to attacking flair; the parade of journeymen would end; an era of skilled stylists would begin.
I want to thank my team mates in the national team and also at Dortmund. It is their work that helps me to score goals.
When we are with the national team we are playing against much better players.
The national team means you have the nation behind it.
Being called up to the national team is about going with them, playing the best you possibly can, and trying to win. That’s how I understand it.
The president requested me to restore order in the national team. I have been designated to be part of the official delegation to Egypt to help boost the morale of our players.
Playing as captain of Juve and the national team, with 500 games for Juve and 100 for the national team, it gives you a different serenity.
It makes me proud if my players are called up the national team.
The most important thing is that Spain have a good team no matter who plays. It is always nice to see your name spoken but the important thing is that the national team does well. But having good players for every position is important because there are always injuries, drops of form.
Way back as a child playing football on the beach, you dream of being a player representing your national team on the big stage – and now I get to be the captain. It’s something money can’t buy.
With a national team, you’ve just got to be even more focused on what’s most important because the time you’ve got with the players is limited.
For me, it’s important to perform in my club and with the national team as well.
I’ve done a lot of great things playing for this country and this national team in the youth stage.
While we play for the club we are focused on usual routine, but when we are with the national team and the new kit is unveiled we feel closer to the World Cup.
For black and Asian people of my generation, the England team and the cross of St George were once ingredients in a toxic broth. For decades, a minority of England fans brought the nation and the national team into disrepute, bringing violence both to foreign streets and immigrant communities at home.
When I was younger it was twice a day with a game on the weekend. Then when I got older, three times a day everyday in college and on the national team.
I wasn’t drafted. I was just playing really good basketball, enjoying playing basketball with my national team and never really thought: ‘I have to get to the NBA.’
It’s been good being able to go back to the Philippines, practice with the national team, do workouts and things.
I’ve played with Jan Vertonghen for Ajax and the national team.
To play with the national team is the ultimate goal for any player.
In the national team, many guys quit, did not want to play, and we had a really young team, and we changed the coach. Many things happened for us.
Schweinsteiger has always been an important player for the national team.
The fear for English players has always been that you might risk a place in the national team if you go abroad but now with all the technology we have, and social media, you are able to watch goals and assists every week, which means his performances are just as noticeable as anyone’s in the Premier League.
My life has changed in many ways, both on an economic and personal level. All major league players are accorded the respect they deserve. In Cuba, it was not that way. National team players were not respected. The treatment was not adequate.
Yes, the national team is all one team. We are not Real Madrid players, Barcelona players, Celta Vigo players… all of us are a group.
I play with players in the Brazilian national team who are similar to those at Chelsea – Kaka, Neymar.
When I had to go for surgery, all the country sent positive messages. I was very happy with that, and all I want is to give back some of this happiness I received both with the national team and at my club.
It’s hard to be as good as Ronaldinho and Ronaldo were, but we’re going to do our best, both myself and Philippe Coutinho, to get close to them and be the best players we can be for the Brazilian national team.
In any national team, the young players who have quality and the right mentality will stand out. And that’s how it should be.
Of course, for the national team it is good to have Mesut Ozil in good form.
I hope things go phenomenally well for Spain and for Luis Enrique. I’m a fervent supporter of the national team.
I spent a lot of time in the national team and I love playing for my country.
In truth, I never dreamed of being a manager. Like every other boy in Brazil who was marked by the ’70 World Cup, I dreamed of wearing the yellow shirt for the national team. Unfortunately, that was not my fate. I had to undergo seven surgeries on my knee. At 27, my career was over, and I was still a young man.
The treatment of Wayne Rooney told me something about the way England fans view the national team.
When you’re a child, you watch Brazil on TV and feel that desire to be a national team player, so when you get here, you make a dream come true, and it’s a huge honour to me and to every player who wears the Brazil shirt.
Being a left back is a very important role, I’m happy to play there. Every time I get the call for the national team or Bayern to play left back, I’m willing to do it.
You can be one inch from the national team and the opportunity to make so much money and a life out of it. That’s why people hang on so long.
I don’t put any extra pressure on myself for national team games.
For me, I have always thought a squad comes before everything. I always make decisions for the good of the French national team.
