"Because people have read those things in the newspapers, they think it is true. Ten years ago all these things I have just mentioned would have upset me"
About this Quote
The second sentence is the quiet pivot from anger to adaptation. “Ten years ago” signals a career’s worth of tabloid cycles, transfer sagas, and dressing-room mythology. Early on, the scrutiny feels personal, like an attack that demands a rebuttal. With time, the athlete learns the more brutal lesson: outrage is a form of participation. The press machine feeds on reaction, and the public often reads emotion as confirmation.
There’s also a professional subtext here. Van Nistelrooy is narrating maturity, but he’s also defending focus. In elite football, being “upset” is not just a feeling; it’s a performance cost. This is reputation management reframed as mental fitness: the capacity to treat headlines as weather. He’s not claiming the stories don’t matter. He’s admitting they matter too much - unless you learn to stop letting other people’s narratives write your mood.
Quote Details
| Topic | Resilience |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Nistelrooy, Ruud van. (2026, January 16). Because people have read those things in the newspapers, they think it is true. Ten years ago all these things I have just mentioned would have upset me. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-people-have-read-those-things-in-the-102831/
Chicago Style
Nistelrooy, Ruud van. "Because people have read those things in the newspapers, they think it is true. Ten years ago all these things I have just mentioned would have upset me." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-people-have-read-those-things-in-the-102831/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Because people have read those things in the newspapers, they think it is true. Ten years ago all these things I have just mentioned would have upset me." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/because-people-have-read-those-things-in-the-102831/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.











