The World Cup is not just a great global sporting event, it is also inscribed with much deeper cultural and political importance.

I tried golf for a while, but I wasn't very good at it, so I didn't play a lot of golf. I enjoy all sports, not just football. I like basketball, baseball, and I got into the World Cup. So really, sports in general are my life, and football specifically.

I like English football, always have. It's just that people go on about the World Cup in 1986 and then I'm seen as the real bad boy.

When you have lived through something as magical as the 2014 World Cup final, you want to relive that experience as many times as possible.

The World Cup is as big as it gets.

Everybody in Argentina can remember 'the hand of God' in the England match in the 1986 World Cup. Now, in my country, the 'hand of God' has brought us an Argentinian pope.

I'm so proud to represent my country at a World Cup because lots of players don't ever get that opportunity, including our manager, Phil Neville. He's reminded us of all the hard work he put in to try and get there, only for him to never make it past the last hurdle.

The main lesson I learned from 2015 is that a World Cup doesn't define a player's career.

At any rate, I can only see such a success having positive effects for everyone, particularly as our anticipation of the World cup would only increase further.

My life goes in four-year cycles. The World Cup is every four years and the Olympics are every four years.

Messi deserves to win this World Cup for all he has done for football.

If I hadn't come East as a kid, I might still be a World Cup racer today, but I wouldn't be the same World Cup racer.

Without a doubt, winning the World Cup is the highest prize in football. It's the peak - the maximum that you can reach.

A World Cup without Argentina and without Messi would be a catastrophe.

You have to show up in the World Cup, and in the World Cup anything can happen.

I'd love to go and I'd love to play for my country and go to a World Cup again. I've got to accept I'm not in the current squad and just think, 'If I get it, it's a bonus and I'll give it everything.' But it's hard to do when you've been thinking a different way all your life.

I wanted my children to be able to see me play at the World Cup.

I'm a fan of how Zinedine Zidane ended his career, right after a World Cup.

Messi is the best player in the world. If he wins a World Cup, he will be the best player ever.

The truth is that I don't have a favourite goal. I remember important goals more than I do favourite goals, like goals in the Champions League where I had the opportunity to have scored in both finals I have played in. Finals in the World Cup or Copa del Rey are the ones that have stayed with me for longer or that I remember more.