Top 66 Philipp Lahm Quotes

I played at full-back for 10 years, I enjoyed it, and I had success there, so I can never regret being a defender.

It’s our responsibility as experienced and successful players to manage our powers in order to be able to give 100 per cent in the right moments.

Pep is a super coach! He is excellent. He is the best at analysing an opponent and the concept of a game. I don’t know what impact he had on German football, but he left a mark on all of us at Bayern because of how he analysed and educated the players in each position and the way he taught us to play.

I had a very interesting and exciting life as a footballer, for which I am grateful.

Both football and business are part of my life.

Things can happen very quickly in football.

Big teams need a core of players who have their roots at their clubs, who grow with their clubs and who embody the culture. Representing it on the pitch and outside as well.

Anyone who knows me knows that I stick with my decisions.

We can never achieve perfect football at Bayern because the game is always changing. There are always new influences and different styles.

History shows that it is incredibly tough for a defender to be named Footballer of the Year because over the course of a year there is normally always a forward who steals the headlines up front.

The key is developing your game in both directions: in the build-up, joining the attack at the right moment and also in defence. You have to win the one-on-one situations and need the required pace and technique. These are the decisive factors for a defender.

The title I most want is the 2014 World Cup.

Many great teams have players who have come through the youth system or have been at the club for a long time as their captains. I’m thinking of Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, John Terry at Chelsea, Raul at Real Madrid, as well as Puyol at Barcelona and Gary Neville at Man United.

Why was Effenberg a leader, because he was outspoken? Or because he had a certain presence on the pitch? When that’s the criteria, OK, then maybe I have a different definition of what a leader is.

As a captain, I have to be courageous but I also want to be nice off the pitch.

I have always enjoyed thinking about playing patterns and I will undoubtedly continue to do so in front of the TV but to become a coach, to be thorough in football at all times, to prepare matches and training… I cannot imagine that I would find pleasure there and pleasure is essential in football.

I last played in Dubai in the summer of 2009 and it was still over 40 degrees in the evening. It was extremely exhausting and absolute madness.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best individual players, as you need to have the best team unit.

What is a Fuhrungsspieler? I don’t like the term. For me there is not a clear definition of the term.

In the past, we won tournaments with lots of fighting and lots of hard running.

As a young footballer I used to look up to a number of stars for inspiration and I understand what Bhaichung must have done for all young Indians aspiring to be footballer.

Was Effenberg a leader because he projected presence or because he had a presence? There is a difference.

As a full back, your role is just as much in playing in midfield, getting forward and creating chances, as it is stopping them at the other end.

Scoring first changes everything. It makes everything easier for us.

When I think back to the 2006 World Cup on home soil, we came close but nobody really expected us to get very far. We simply lost to a better team and Italy went on to win it.

It’s obvious that I’d like to keep the captain’s armband. The job gives me a great deal of enjoyment. Why should I then give it up by choice?

You can never know if there will be a second Cruyff, someone with a great personality who can grow up and make it into the squad of the club they love. But what is certain is that, in the Champions League, there will be big clubs producing these players forever.

I have climbed every step of the football ladder, from kicking a ball about in Munich’s Olympic Park to becoming a junior at Bayern, signing professional terms, establishing myself in the first team and taking the captain’s armband.

Of course, the moment when the ball hits the net, that’s fascinating for kids playing the game and motivates them to join a club.

My first club was FT Gern. I joined through my parents and friends. My father played for them and a friend from nursery school took me to training once. I was five at the time.

We should not discuss refereeing performances but support decisions to help their work.

Every Bundesliga match is a new challenge, our opponents don’t make it easy for us.

Thomas Muller is an excellent player.

Those who have achieved success in football have a degree of responsibility to be open and honest about our ‘calling,’ our passion.

Germans have a rich history of playing well in the World Cup.

Anybody who has played with Mesut will tell you how intelligent he is as a player. His vision is probably the best I have ever seen and that is why it is so important to have the right striker ahead of him.

I’m from Munich. I was born here in this town.

Any business or club has to have a hierarchy. Everybody needs to know and understand his role in the overall structure. Bayern Munich is no different.

Clubs like Manchester United or Barcelona have a system, and then you hire personnel who fit this system.

At Euro 2004 – my first as a player – Greece won the title. A team nobody thought could win it.

I’ve practically grown up with FC Bayern Munich since the age of 11. In my case, a talent scout noticed me when I was playing for a local youth team at Gern in Munich.

I’m lucky to have played two different positions. But of course the experience I gained as a full back – knowledge of defending, and taking up the right positions, helps me as a midfielder.

Schweinsteiger has always been an important player for the national team.

We have always found it easier, and still do, when the opponent plays football as well, when they don’t just think in defensive terms, don’t just sit inside their penalty box. It’s just nicer when the opponent plays football.

I do a lot of things instinctively.

Even if I won so many titles, the first title is not forgotten.

In football, surprises are always possible.

The abolition of the double sanction for a foul in the box is a welcome change. There are times that you cannot help but stop your opponent in the box, with your momentum forcing you to make a challenge. Fouls can’t be avoided in that situation but your intention was fair.

I consider it a privilege and duty to pass on the experience and knowledge I have accumulated in 20 years of experience at club and national team level with Bayern and Germany.

Of course it’s not a normal thing to show a good performance every time.

To achieve success in this game you need specific talents and attributes. But we also have to adapt to the fact that we work in the public eye, with all its pros and cons.

Klinsmann was the shining hero of the 2006 World Cup when Bayern took him on.

The Champions League is such a tough competition.

It’s not enough to buy good players, one has to develop a team.

Football is teamwork, unity, defence, assists, sacrifice.

Looking back at my matches since 2002, there is one main criterion for me which marks a club which is successful in the long-term: big players, who have grown with their clubs, whose names are tied to the success and who have a 100 per cent identification with the team, the club and its history.

We make adjustments and changes before and sometimes also during the games in order adapt to the opposition. The manager will, for example, tell the striker to make different runs or position the central midfielders slightly differently in relation to each other.

When I played for Stuttgart, I met Manchester United and Chelsea. With United, I immediately think of the duels with Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes and with Chelsea, it was John Terry. Those players are symbols of their clubs and the success they had at that time.

Cruyff’s idea was, quite literally, to play football – nothing more, nothing less. His idea of how football should be played was based not on controlling the opponent, but on the ball and the game.

Always being champion, always being at the top every three days, playing great football – it’s not that easy.

Sporting behaviour means fair behaviour. This is the player’s task, not the referee’s.

I spend too much time sitting in an office. So I need to play sports on a regular basis, that’s why I play golf and tennis.

I have no problems with homosexuals whatsoever.

We practically only practiced fitness under Klinsmann, there was very little technical instruction and the players themselves discussed the way they would play a game before the match.

Winning the Bundesliga is never a given.

My first goal was to become a professional footballer.