“There was huge pressure, especially before the big games. Not many people believed in us, but we believed in ourselves. We wanted to do something good and we did.”

Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.

Everything I have achieved in football is due to playing football in the streets with my friends

The French team has given me so much and I want to help it. I told myself I did not have much time left in soccer, and I want to profit from it to the maximum.

Mandela has played a crucial part in history. He’s done some extraordinary things, not only for his country but also for the whole world.

I have always said the French team is the most important thing that has happened to me. I thought deeply about it and I want to play for France again.

Football boots are very technical and have lots of specific requirements.

Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.

Everything Iniesta does impresses me. He could even play as goalkeeper. He’s magical.

I have decided to come back for Les Bleus.

In France, everybody realized that God exists, and that he is back in the French international team. God is back, there is little left to say.

Sometimes I don’t know what takes me over during a game. Sometimes I just feel I have moved to a different place and I can make the pass, score the goal or go past my marker at will.

You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get. One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career.

I’m very inspired by him-it was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.

Zidane is unique. The ball flows with him. He is more like a dancer than a football player.

I am proud of where I come from and I will never forget the people I grew up with.

A Mediterranean city is really my culture.

God is near you, is with you, is inside you.

I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy.

If my life was a movie, no one would believe it.

When you believe, you’ll accomplish dreams much bigger than you thought.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that the Good Lord gave us a finite number of heartbeats and I’m damned if I’m going to use up mine running up and down a street.

Believe in your dreams, no matter how impossible they seem.

Black women are very capable of leading our organizations. I believe that firmly.