Russian superstar Andrey Arshavin is clearly a man of the world - and a man of many words. In fact, the Gunners’ scoring machine can’t keep his month shut, and has at various points in his career shared with the world his view on the important stuff in life. Like, women. And the French.
Here's the pick of the wit and wisdom of Andrey Arshavin:
On women
“If I had it in my power to introduce a ban on women driving cars and to withdraw all their licences, I would do it without thinking twice.”
“In my opinion a woman and a man are two absolutely different creatures.”
“I like tall, slim girls with narrow thighs and tiny bums. If a girl is like this I do not pay attention to her breasts. Hair colour doesn’t matter either. What is really important is her style and manners.”
“I dislike women who smoke - and lie.”
On foreigners
“Today I was sitting in the [Arsenal] changing room and it was all French - now that's a language I have a lot of problems with. But I hope we will get over the language barrier and everything else very quickly.”
On fashion
“When I was 17 I wanted to study - but not at a sports institute. My friends recommended the University of Technology and Design. I spent eight years there, and now I have a diploma in fashion design. It wasn't easy, but my teachers gave me fantastic support. They always made an effort to help me. They enabled me to graduate successfully”
Apparently he chose fashion because "there would be lots of girls" on the course
On fame
“When I was moving from the youth team to the regular squad, people would often ask me: 'Do you have ambitions of being star'?’ That annoyed me. One time I said: 'No, I was born a star.' That was the last time anyone asked that question.”
On being different
“I'm not afraid of going against the grain. I've learned to speak my mind. I'm different. But I'm not trying to be eccentric. I always do what my inner voice tells me.”
On goalkeeping
When asked his opinion of then England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, Andrey replied: "Not the strongest representative of his profession".
