"Money is not everything. My ambition was football itself, not the money I'd make from it. If that brings me and my family a more comfortable lifestyle, then that's fine. But I don't spend my time between games and training sessions thinking about figures"
About this Quote
The subtext is reputational triage. In an era when footballers are treated as brands and contracts are tabloid sport, he positions himself against the caricature of the mercenary. Notice the careful phrasing: “football itself” (the game as an end), “comfortable lifestyle” (comfort, not extravagance), “that’s fine” (permission without apology). Even “me and my family” is strategic: it frames financial gain as responsibility rather than appetite.
The most revealing part is the last sentence, which reads like a rebuttal to the invisible interviewer: I’m not counting; I’m training. It’s a claim to mental purity, but also to professionalism. Fans want loyalty, clubs want leverage, sponsors want a clean narrative. Del Piero offers all three: ambition rooted in performance, money acknowledged but domesticated, and a quiet insistence that the real scoreboard is on the pitch.
Context matters: coming from a player associated with one-club devotion and a pre-social-media celebrity economy, this is a defense of a certain old-school football virtue - not poverty, but priorities.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Piero, Alessandro Del. (2026, January 15). Money is not everything. My ambition was football itself, not the money I'd make from it. If that brings me and my family a more comfortable lifestyle, then that's fine. But I don't spend my time between games and training sessions thinking about figures. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/money-is-not-everything-my-ambition-was-football-40373/
Chicago Style
Piero, Alessandro Del. "Money is not everything. My ambition was football itself, not the money I'd make from it. If that brings me and my family a more comfortable lifestyle, then that's fine. But I don't spend my time between games and training sessions thinking about figures." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/money-is-not-everything-my-ambition-was-football-40373/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Money is not everything. My ambition was football itself, not the money I'd make from it. If that brings me and my family a more comfortable lifestyle, then that's fine. But I don't spend my time between games and training sessions thinking about figures." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/money-is-not-everything-my-ambition-was-football-40373/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.







