Marco van Basten

“Ronaldo is a great player. But anyone who claims he is better than Messi either doesn't understand football or is acting in bad faith.”

“Messi is unique. Inimitable and unrepeatable. One like him comes along every fifty years.”

“A children's game, in the purest and truest sense of the term.”

“The players are more important. Only they count in football. The good coach is the one who gets the best out of them, without forcing his ideas on them.”

“In football the hierarchy is always set by ability. Age, success, salary don't count. Only ability.”

“One goal is worth the same as another. Technical feats are examined, studied, put under the microscope. But they just happen, that's all. They are children of the moment. There is never a real explanation. Football is instinct, ninety per cent.”

“I scored because my ankle was strapped up rigidly, and it kept my foot steady as I struck it. A small compensation.”

“I am an interrupted footballer. Perhaps the most famous of that category. I did not leave in peace.”

“If you want to be number one, you have to concentrate on goals, only on goals. You have to become a machine.”

“If you score a lot in Italy, you have the quality to score and make the difference in the Champions League too.”

“Look, Messi is simply by far the best footballer.”

“If you don't know what it means to be unhappy, you don't know what it means to be happy either.”

“In front of 80,000 people, I am witnessing my own farewell. Marco van Basten, the footballer, no longer exists.”

“Today, I died as a footballer. I am here, a guest at my own funeral.”