Skip to main content

Time & Perspective Quote by Edin Džeko

"He was a great captain. He was the best captain we could have had at that time because he was a great leader and he was always a positive guy"

About this Quote

What makes Dzeko's praise land is its plainness. There is no attempt to mythologize, no poetic overreach, just the vocabulary of a dressing room: "great captain", "great leader", "positive guy". Coming from an athlete, that simplicity is not a weakness. It signals authenticity. Players often talk most honestly when they sound least polished.

The key phrase is not "best captain" on its own, but "the best captain we could have had at that time". That qualifier gives the line its real weight. Dzeko is not making a timeless argument about abstract greatness; he is describing a specific need in a specific moment. Teams do not always need the most gifted or charismatic figure. Sometimes they need emotional steadiness, a player who can absorb pressure, keep standards intact, and stop nerves or ego from taking over. "At that time" suggests a squad in transition, stress, or uncertainty, where positivity was not cosmetic but functional.

Calling him "always a positive guy" also does quiet cultural work. In sports, positivity can sound soft until you understand how valuable it is inside elite competition. A captain's mood is contagious. Optimism, repeated daily, becomes a form of management. It keeps losses from turning into spirals and personalities from becoming factions.

Dzeko's intent seems less about grand tribute than about defending a kind of leadership that can be underrated from the outside. Fans often reward spectacle; teammates remember emotional reliability. That is the subtext here: the captain mattered not because he dominated every moment, but because he stabilized them.

Quote Details

TopicLeadership
SourceManchester City interview, "Dzeko: Kompany was the ideal City captain at that time" (June 21, 2022)
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Džeko, Edin. (2026, March 10). He was a great captain. He was the best captain we could have had at that time because he was a great leader and he was always a positive guy. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/he-was-a-great-captain-he-was-the-best-captain-we-186043/

Chicago Style
Džeko, Edin. "He was a great captain. He was the best captain we could have had at that time because he was a great leader and he was always a positive guy." FixQuotes. March 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/he-was-a-great-captain-he-was-the-best-captain-we-186043/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"He was a great captain. He was the best captain we could have had at that time because he was a great leader and he was always a positive guy." FixQuotes, 10 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/he-was-a-great-captain-he-was-the-best-captain-we-186043/. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.

More Quotes by Edin Add to List
Edin Dzeko on Leadership and Steady Captaincy in Transition
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Edin Džeko

Edin Džeko (born March 17, 1986) is a Athlete from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

6 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian
Alexis de Tocqueville