Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane, the monk-like fantasista - heir to Platini's throne as France's greatest ever player, is also widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. Maybe slightly overrated in some quarters when labelled with the 'Greatest Ever' tag, his achievements and trophy haul are certainly second to very few. For a time he was also the most expensive player in the world, costing Real Madrid a huge £46m. During his playing days Zidane became one of world football's true superstars, and much loved players - his global fan base was (and still is) exceptional. From Europe, to North Africa (the origin of his roots) and the Middle East, to Japan - Zidane, was the man.

Zidane was born to Algerian immigrants who firstly moved to Paris, but eventually settled in La Castellane - a suburb with a huge North African community in France's southern town of Marseille. It was here that Yazid Zidane was born in 1972. Yazid, his birth name, is what he was known by to his friends and family. The young Yazid looked to replicate his idol; Olympic Marseille's very own fantasista, Uruguayan Enzo Franchescoli, by teaching himself tricks and repetitively juggling a football until he was better than most of the boys in the area. In a neighbourhood high in crime rate Zidane had to become tough, though this was mostly focused through Judo - something else he showed an early talent for. But it was football that won the youngsters heart. After school he would gather with the other boys from his tower block, in 'Place Tartane' - an 80 x 12 yard clearing in the middle of the housing complex, which served as a makeshift football pitch. By 13 years old his talent was such that he was spotted by a scout for Cannes who proclaimed: 'I've found a boy who has hands where his feet should be'. After initial scepticism he was allowed to join the club's 'centre de formation', leaving home and his family in the process to lodge with a club director's family.

By 16 years old he was making his league debut versus Nantes. Then, playing the same opponents two years on, he scored his first senior league goal in a 2-1 win. Remembering the promise he made the young Zidane upon scoring his debut goal, the president rewarded him with a brand new Renault Clio. Unfortunately for the 20 year old Zizou, the Va Va Voom factor wore off pretty quick as Cannes were relegated the very next season. His skills didn't go unnoticed however and with an offer coming in from Bordeaux, Zidane moved South for approximately £300k, where he would be reunited with his junior international team mate and close friend Christophe Dugarry. They formed part of an exciting new team that made waves in Europe as well as at home, winning the Intertoto Cup in 1995 and finishing runners-up in the UEFA Cup. It was during this period he also made his national team debut in 1994, coming off the bench whilst France were 2-0 down against the Czech Republic, and scoring twice. The press went wild - the new Platini had arrived. People outside of France were now beginning to take notice of Zidane's attributes. The then Premiership Champions Blackburn Rovers coach Ray Harford expressed an interest in the midfielder, only for Blackburn's owner Jack Walker to refuse, famously stating: 'Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?'

Zizou was a relative late bloomer on the world stage. He was already aged 24 when gaining his first major move - Juventus paying a modest £3.2m in 1996 to take him from the Bordeaux side that had starred (particularly against AC Milan) in the previous seasons UEFA Cup. Juve had chosen to snap him up before the summer's Euro'96 competition in case of any value increase. But after his poor, lacklustre performances during the tournament, they probably saw their new commodity depreciate in value - leading Juventus president Gianni Agnelli to cuttingly remark: 'is the real Zidane the one I've heard so much about, or the one I've been watching?' To be fair to Zidane, he had just completed a mammoth 65-match season. Then on the eve of the Euros, he suffered a car crash. His arrival in Turin signalled more 'new Platini' comparisons. But after a difficult period of adjustment to the new league, murmurs of disappointment could be heard throughout the Juve faithful, leading Zidane to announce: 'I'm Zinedine Zidane and it's important that the fans understand that I can never be Platini, on or off the pitch.' He was right. Zidane was a totally different character to the former Juventus number 10, and what's more that shirt at Juve now belonged to Del Piero. Zidane's squad number at La Vecchia Signora was 21 - an alien number to a fantasista, however after the frosty start in Turin his performances started to resemble a true fantasista. With winning goals against championship rivals Inter, and by helping Juve secure their second Intercontinental Cup in November versus River Plate, Zidane silenced his doubters. The win was made even sweeter for Zidane as he faced his teenage idol, Enzo Francescoli. The Uruguayan fantasista was ending his career back at the club where he had shot to fame. For Zidane, life couldn't get any better.

Only it could.

That trophy was the first major of his senior career and sparked a remarkable winning period which would see him collect nearly every major trophy the sport had to offer during an incredible career. His stay at the Turin giants saw him win the Scudetto twice, a UEFA Supercup and another Intertoto Cup. During the same period with France he collected the 1998 World Cup and then followed it up with the European Championship in 2000. The only major trophy which evaded him was the Champions League. He had finished runner-up twice with Juve and now it seemed like his Holy Grail. It was probably a major factor in his decision to leave Juventus in the summer of 2001, when Real Madrid came calling and splashed out a whopping £47m for his services. The Real president Florentino Perez was embarking on his first galactico project, signing the best players in the world. And at this time, nobody was better than Zidane, having also picked up the greatest accolades any individual player could win - the Ballon d'Or in 1998, and World Player of the Year in that same year, whilst also collecting it in 2000. In 1996 when he arrived at Juventus he may have been labelled as an inferior model to the great Platini, but in 2001 he was leaving having certainly surpassed him.

In Spain, Zidane won the watching Bernabeau faithful over instantly. They adored his velvet touch and instant control. His mastery over the ball reminded their older followers of their glorious players from the past - not least their greatest ever player, Alfredo Di Stefano, who's number 5 shirt Zidane now wore (the number 10 shirt was taken by Real's first galactico, Luis Figo). The similarity would be greatly enhanced by the end of that season, when Zidane inspired Madrid to reach the European Cup final in Glasgow - scene of their infamous 7-3 victory in 1960 versus Eintracht Frankfurt from Germany. During that match the great Di Stefano was at the peak of his powers, scoring a hat-trick. Real's modern day number 5 couldn't quite emulate three goals, but scored what is considered the greatest goal in European Cup final history - a tremendous volley with his left foot (his wrong foot) from the edge of the penalty box, to lead Real to a 2-1 win over Bayer Laverkusen...from Germany. He had completed his Holy Grail.

Zidane won further trophy's whilst in Spain, adding a La Liga championship, a UEFA Supercup and another Intercontinental Cup to his now bursting trophy cabinet. He also claimed a third World Player of the Year award in 2003, making him the joint highest ever recipient (alongside Ronaldo).

Zizou was more than a collection of awards though. To watch him play during his peak was like watching the top ballet star perform, albeit in football boots, such was his elegance and technique when controlling and gliding with the ball. His signature move, the roulette, looked like a graceful pirouette performed in the middle of a clumsy mob, leaving his midfield markers dumfounded and kicking fresh air. His attributes led Michel Platini to observe: 'Technically, I think he is the king of what's fundamental in the game - control and passing. I don't think anyone can match him when it comes to controlling or receiving the ball.' Brazilian coaching legend Carlos Alberto Parreira put it rather more bluntly, though non-the less complimentary, simply labelling him: 'a monster!'

Dissimilar to a large number of the other incredible fantasisti, Zidane was certainly not an extraordinary goalscorer, failing to reach twofold figures in Italy or Spain. In any case, he was undoubtedly a scorer of incredible objectives. All the more vitally he was a scorer of unequivocal objectives in defining moments, particularly on the worldwide stage. He scored twice (two indistinguishable headers) in the 1998 World Cup last, when France beat Brazil 3-1 to win their first since forever (and just) World Cup. Amid Euro 2000 he scored a radiant free-kick in the quarter-finals versus Spain, at that point, tailed it up scoring a Golden Goal in the semi-last win versus Portugal. Euro 2004 saw a poor French execution yet Zidane gave one of the features of the opposition when scoring twice (a free-kick and a punishment) in damage time, transforming a 1-0 overcome into a 2-1 triumph versus England amid the opening gathering amusement. Solidifying his place as an unbelievable World Cup entertainer in 2006 Zidane scored the victor, another punishment versus Portugal in the semi-last. He at that point scored (another punishment) again in a different universe Cup last, giving France an early lead against Italy in what was his last match as an expert footballer (he had reported his retirement from the amusement before the competition). Unfortunately for him, France lost that amusement. Considerably sadder was the way that Zidane couldn't remain on the pitch until the last shriek - having gotten a red card. Sadly for Zizou, red cards likewise frame some portion of his legend.

As a playmaker Zidane's appearance was all in his innovative energy and imaginativeness. Nonetheless, amid his vocation he was no more peculiar to some offensive episodes on the football pitch. Zidane was sent-off a gigantic 12 times amid his vocation (counting five times at Juventus and twice while at Real Madrid) - for the most part for countering. These brutal flashpoints were in guide difference to his apparent cool persona as he skimmed around the field, however his agonizing, regularly surly gaze likewise filled in as a notice; he was a player who might not be tormented. His reaction to incitement was first noted amid his more youthful days at Cannes. While he never began any inconvenience, he knew how to deal with himself. As Richard Williams deftly places it in his fantastic book 'The Perfect 10', he would react: 'in a way that may be normal from a kid shaped in an extreme quarter of a tough city, where damage may be reimbursed with a headbutt'. Quick forward 18 years and Marco Materazzi was living confirmation that age had not mellowed Zidane's own feeling of individual equity - a flying headbutt to the Italian's chest in light of charged incitement amid the 2006 World Cup last. His last go about as an expert footballer.

Numerous overlook nonetheless, this was not Zizou's first red card amid a World Cup competition. Without a doubt amid France's triumphant World Cup triumph in 1998 it is anything but difficult to overlook, in all the mania of his two headed objectives in the last, that he was quickly a French miscreant. Amid the second gathering amusement versus Saudi Arabia, the thinning up top fantasista mysteriously lost his cool and stamped on the back of the Saudi chief while he was lay on the ground after a test. It cleared out the watching scene perplexed, as this time Zidane's image of individual equity appeared to come with no immediate incitement. The French publication kid was given a two match suspension, putting 'Les Bleus' battle in danger - the then skipper Didier Deschamps summing up the anxious sentiment of the country: 'I know he's hasty, yet he's put all of us in danger'. For sure without Zidane, the French battled (in the long run winning) in their last-16 tie versus Paraguay - which is demonstration of the impact Zizou had on the national group. This would turn into a stressing detectable element of all the French groups for the following decade; such was Zidane's stature and capacity. With him, they were world blenders, without him they looked additionally rans. Amid capability for the 2006 finals, the French (without Zidane who had reported his global retirement in 2004) nearly neglected to qualify. Zidane (alongside Thuram and Makelele) addressed the get to assist his nation and was promptly reestablished as chief. In doing as such he in a split second restored the French who went ahead to come to the (disastrous) last of the competition - en route thumping out past and future champions Brazil and Spain, with Zidane in imperious frame and winning the opposition's Most Valuable Player grant.

So with this fantasista, we had the magnificence and the mammoth. The elegance and the brutality. Taking the harsh with the smooth, he was a serious player - perhaps Parreira had portrayed him best after all...he was a creature!

Bio

Conceived: 23rd June 1972 in Marseille (France)

Tallness: 1.85m/6ft 1"

Vocation

1988-1992: Cannes - 61 applications/6 objectives

1992-1996: Bordeaux - 139 applications/28 objectives

1996-2001: Juventus - 151 applications/24 objectives

2001-2006: Real Madrid - 155 applications/37 objectives

Aggregates: 506 application/95 objectives

1994-2006: France - 108 tops/31 objectives

Respects

World Player of the Year: 1998, 2000, 2003

Ballon D'Or: 1998

FIFA World Cup: 1998

UEFA European Championship: 2000

UEFA Champions League: 2002

UEFA Supercup: 1996, 2002

Intercontinental Cup: 1996, 2002

Serie A Champions: 1997, 1998

La Liga Champions: 2003