I have good memories of Real Madrid. Professionally, it was a difficult period, but my experience there was very good in all senses, as I grew a lot, learned many things, and lived with great champions.
The high point of my career was winning the Champions League. No one will ever erase that from my memory, in the same way that no one will ever erase the fact that I did it in a Manchester United shirt.
Everyone in the Champions League has quality.
I know that a good many champions have entertained the thought that the more they discourage youngsters, the longer they would reign. However, this theory never impressed me, and I always made it a point to give youths the benefit of my experience in bicycle racing.
Obviously, the World Cup is nice and the Euros is really nice as well, but I have always dreamed of the Champions League.
‘We Are the Champions’ is meant to be ‘we,’ as in ‘all of us,’ collectively, not us the band. It’s a shame that some people understandably had the wrong take on that. ‘No time for losers’ is not the kindest line, but it’s really more of a ‘we all of us.’ It’s a celebration.
The rules are changed now, there’s not any way to build a team today. It’s just how much money you want to spend. You could be the world champions and somebody else makes a key acquisition or two and you’re through.
I want to win the Premier League and the Champions League.
Playing in the Champions League ought to be a pleasure and a joy.
Winning the Champions League is completely different to winning the Premier League.
I’ve won junior titles, ABA titles and boxed for England all over the world against future Olympic champions as an amateur – and then beat world-class fighters as a professional.
I was a driver and a racer. The difference between drivers, who can be great World Champions, and racers, who are also World Champions, is that racers don’t wait for things to happen: they make things happen.
Even before the World Cup in 2010 I had said that there were no world champions who aim to stifle the opposition’s play and somehow hope to win. These teams do not go far.
With the passing of Milton Friedman on November 16, 2006, we lost one of the great champions of free markets.
Everyone benefits from a strong Paris Saint-Germain – the club itself, the French league and also the Champions League.
The Premier League is always difficult – Champions League or not.
If the ‘enemy combatant’ cases of Padilla and Hamdi present a clash between liberty and security, each side champions one while giving short shrift to the other.
The Champions League is the biggest trophy. Everybody in the world wants to win it.
Bayern had no international success in the years before I joined, and my goal was actually to play at the best possible level, which would have meant winning the Champions League.
I always say it must not be an obsession to win the Champions League. It’s a very important title and beautiful to do it. But you must not try to win the Champions League and lose focus on the Premier League.
To be honest, I was never expecting to be in a World Cup final, a Euro final, a Champions League final, a Europa League final. I’ve done much more than I dreamt, and that’s incredible.
I want to prove myself at Chelsea and be successful in the Premiership and the Champions League.
I scored against Arsenal in the Champions League. That’s something I will never forget. But I’m one of those people who seems to remember the bad times more than the good. Just the way I am.
When a player chooses to play for PSG he is also choosing a project that may one day win the Champions League. In this town, that will mean five times more than winning it at another club.
I could easily be defending my title against top contenders in the Top 10, but if they haven’t been champions or their record’s not perfect, it doesn’t really excite me. It doesn’t motivate me. But that’s why I’m facing guys like Dejan Zlaticanin, Sergey Lipinets, undefeated champions.
Every year, you have to have the feeling to achieve the Champions League. Otherwise, we should stop playing football.
Playing in the Champions League and getting to the final is everything you could ask for.
In the Champions League, everything is possible.
Every player dreams of playing a Champions League semi-final, and we will give everything.
We are Asian champions, but we cannot take chances.
If Celtic were to build a team strong enough to regularly compete in the Champions League, I might decide to manage them one day.
Porto is my team since I was a young boy. I was in the stands for all the matches. I was too young to go to the Champions League final in 2004, but I celebrated afterwards. I watch all their games when I can. At some point in my career, I want to go back.
Just do Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz 3 for the 165-pound title. You want to talk about a big fight? That’s a big fight. Let’s add some weight classes. Let’s see more champion versus champion. Let’s get some more two division champions.
I want to play the Tour until I’m 46, 47, and then take about three years off, and then go play the Champions Tour when I’m 50. That’s the plan, but you never know – it all depends on how good the fishing and hunting is.
You still remember the bad rounds here, but they don’t stay with you as long. The Champions Tour is great, it’s competitive and it’s a wonderful show, but it’s not the real big league. The real big league is the PGA Tour, and we all know that.
All of Europe’s biggest clubs place the Champions’ League as their top priority these days but only one of us can lift the trophy. The domestic league titles are still crucial of course, but I think most players will tell you the Champions’ League is the one they want to win most of all.
I do feel the obligation and desire to win the Scudetto with Juventus, and obviously everybody wants to win the Champions League.
When you are at a club like Man United, you know what your goals are. Your goals are to win every match, to be champions, to win all the competitions that you are playing in during the season.
I love talking to interesting people – people like O.J. Simpson, Andretti… I love champions. A champion has something special about him.
Too many points are being won or lost on the back of bad decisions which could cost clubs a place in the Champions League or send them down.
All I can do is as well as I can in the Champions League then just wait and see what happens. I’m looking forward to it just as much as everyone else. It is a great platform for all of us to show what we are about, to step up to the plate.
I like to stay active. I’m one of the champions chasing the contenders.
I want to play the Champions League with Marseille, but I want to know how much we are economically dependent on our project.
The Champions League was something very distant for us. I grew up in a very small town with 50,000 inhabitants, and it was a way of being able to watch my idols or people I admired play football on television.
Qualifying for the Champions League is not possible without a player like Dimitri Payet.
An athlete must have ability to reach the top, but many who have ability and who do not live clean lives never have and never will be champions for obvious reasons.
I went to the final of the Champions League, and I scored 32 goals. This pressure does not weigh too much. I’m on the field to have fun and give pleasure to the fans.
I want to leave PSG one day having won the Champions League. That’s my biggest dream.
Everyone is at their best against the champions.
When I was young, I always wanted to play in the Champions League.
I remember, in my first interview after I arrived in Manchester, I said, ‘I didn’t come here to play in the Champions League – I have come to win it.’
I consider myself lucky because I’ve had the possibility in life to do the one thing closest to my heart: playing football. I’ve also been lucky enough to win prestigious trophies like two Champions Leagues and other competitions with Milan.
I’m the best heavyweight outside the world champions, and let’s not forget that.
I think it’s normal that you will lose players if you don’t play every season in the Champions League, because that’s the intention for every player to be part of that.
It’s great to see that there are Dortmund fans in every stadium. That is something that motivates you, and in the end, you look forward to games even more, especially Europa League or Champions League away matches, when you see how many fans follow us. It is something very special.
The Champions League is, in terms of club football, the most prestigious one. And if you don’t win it you will never be named one of the greatest teams, no chance.
The best players want to play for the best clubs in Europe and appear in top competitions like the Champions League.
In April 2013, Nathaniel Popper of ‘The New York Times’ reported on Bitcoin in an article titled, ‘Digital Money is Gaining Champions in the Real World’.
It is hard to say no to PSG – as with all teams capable of winning the Champions League, There is always uncertainty in football.
It’s not easy playing against Barcelona in the Champions League. They are a club with a lot of history.
