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Zinedine Zidane

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Zinedine Zidane

Personal information
Full name Zinedine Yazid (la'na, Beshumar!) Zidane
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Offensive Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 retired

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (Arabic: زين الدين زيدان) (Neo-Tifinagh: ⵣⵉⵏⴻⴷⵉⵏ ⵢⴰⵣⵉⴷ ⵣⵉⴷⴰⵏ) (born June 23, 1972, in Marseille, France), nicknamed Zizou, is a French football player of Algerian background who used to play for Real Madrid and will end his career after playing for the French national team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Zidane is often considered to be the best footballer of his generation, and one of the greatest footballers of all time [1]. An elegant dribbler of the ball, his passing ability and perfect balance have made him one of the game's finest artists and the natural successor of France's Michel Platini.

On 25 April, 2006, Zidane officially announced his decision to retire from both club and international football after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.[2]

Career

Zidane was born in Marseille, and raised in La Castellane, one of the housing projects (cité) in the northern suburbs of Marseille (The "Quartiers Nord"). Though born in Marseille, Zidane has never played for Olympique de Marseille. His time in the French league was spent with AS Cannes and Bordeaux, before he was snapped up by Juventus for £3 million.

Zidane was a member of the French football team in

Wikipedia has media related to 1998.

, which France won, scoring two headed goals in the final against Brazil. His only blemish being the red card explusion and two-game suspension in a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia, when he stamped on an opposing player for no apparent reason. Two years later, he led his country to a second major championship, winning Template:Ec2. He has been elected three times as FIFA World Player of the Year (1998, 2000, 2003) and one time as European Footballer of the Year (1998).

In 2001 Zidane transferred from Italian team Juventus F.C. to Spanish club side Real Madrid on a four-year contract. The transfer fee was £47 million (approx. $81 million US, €66million), making him the most expensive player in football history. While Zidane initially took a while to settle in among his fellow 'Galacticos' at Madrid like Raúl González, Luís Figo and Roberto Carlos, he was undoubtedly the biggest name of the lot by reputation alone, and as the season progressed his form just got better, culminating in his helping Madrid and scoring the winning goal with a fantastic volley in a 2-1 win over the German team Bayer Leverkusen in the 2001-2002 Champions League Final in Glasgow's Hampden Park.

Injuries prevented him from performing at his best in the

Wikipedia has media related to 2002.

. France's defense of their title was one of the most unsuccessful in World Cup history; the team was eliminated in the First Round without scoring a single goal. Without Zidane's creativity and vision France looked lost.[citation needed] Zidane rushed back from his injury in time to play in France's last game, but could not play to his best form.

On August 12, 2004, after the Template:Ec2 display of France, the team getting knocked out in the quarter-final by eventual winners Greece, Zidane retired from international football. He announced on February 4 2005 that he would retire from the game at the end of his current contract with Real Madrid, at the end of the 2006-07 season.

After France experienced serious problems in attempting to qualify for the

Wikipedia has media related to 2006.

, Zidane announced on August 3, 2005 to come out of international retirement to make a comeback for Les Bleus. He stated on his official website: "I have gone back on my decision, one year after I said it was categorical." On the same day French teammate and Chelsea midfielder Claude Makélélé, who also quit the French team following Template:Ec2, said he wanted to come out of international retirement as well. The same week, Lilian Thuram announced he would come back as well. The trio made their competitive return in the 3-0

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qualifier win against the Faroe Islands on September 3rd, and France would go on to win their qualifying group.

However, on 25th April 2006, after an injury plagued season at Real Madrid, he announced that he would retire after representing France in the 2006 World Cup finals to be held in Germany.

On May 27, 2006, Zidane earned his 100th cap for France with a 1-0 victory over Mexico at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on the outskirts on Paris. It was his last match in that stadium and he became only the fourth Frenchman after Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Lilian Thuram to earn a century of national caps. The three-time World Player of the Year had a below-par performance and was substituted early in the second half under deafening cheers from the crowd.

In the closing minutes of France's second match of the 2006 World Cup, Zidane was given a yellow card for running into a player late. As a result, he is suspended from the third and final match of the group stage.[3] If France does not defeat Togo, Zidane's foul will be his last act as a player.

Legacy

Zidane is one of the football icons of his generation and is known to be modest, quiet and self-admittedly shy. As a Guardian feature article says, however, Zidane also has occasional flashes of aggression on the pitch. One such display of aggression occurred when Zidane was red carded for headbutting Jochen Kientz in a 2000/2001 Champions League match for Juventus against Hamburger SV. He also stamped on a player in the 1998 World Cup and received a straight red card.

In 2004, Zidane was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations. In 2004, he was also voted the best European player for the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

In the final stages of his career, many pundits and fans alike already identify him as the most important player of his generation and his name is regularly mentioned alongside former greats such as Di Stéfano, Pele, Cruyff and Maradona. Zidane will retire after the 2006 World Cup.

Honors

File:Zidane Winning Eleven.JPG
Zinedine Zidane on the cover of the PlayStation 2 "Winning Eleven 8".

With the French national team:

With Juventus F.C.:

With Real Madrid:

Personal honours:

Preceded by European Footballer of the Year
1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year
1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year
2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by UEFA Champions League Most Valuable Player
2001-02 		Succeeded by
Preceded by FIFA World Player of the Year
2003 		Succeeded by

Last Santiago Bernabéu stadium game

On the 7th of May 2006, Zidane played his last home game for Real Madrid at the famous Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Real Madrid players wore a special jersey which had "ZIDANE 2001 - 2006" written on the bottom of the club logo. As expected, the Real Madrid fans gave him a warm reception and kept cheering him through the whole game. This game was played against Villarreal CF and, unfortunately for Zidane, the best result that Real Madrid could get was a 3-3 draw coming from behind. Zidane scored the second goal for Real Madrid without any major celebration, depicting his modesty. Zidane exchanged his jersey with Juan Roman Riquelme, the Villarreal CF and Argentinian midfielder. At the end of the game, the Real Madrid fans said goodbye to Zidane by giving him a massive ovation that left him in tears.


Facts and Trivia

  • When Zidane came back from retirement, in August 2005, he was reinstated as captain of the French national team, where he wears squad number 10. At Real Madrid he wears squad number 5.
  • In an interview he declared that when he was a teenager, Zidane admired Olympique de Marseille's Uruguayan playmaker Enzo Francescoli (after whom he named his eldest son). He once was a ballboy at a match with Francescoli and thus saw him up close.
  • He was an Athens 2004 Torchbearer.
  • In 2004, Zinedine Zidane was appointed as "Chevalier" (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur by French President Jacques Chirac.
  • The first penalty kick Zidane ever missed with the French National team was (ironically) during his last match in a French stadium, while playing a friendly game against China in Saint-Étienne, June 7th 2006, the last preparation game for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, where he accidently slid and placed the ball above the goal. He nevertheless remains one of the best penalty-takers in the history of the game.
  • Zidane's 34th birthday will coincide with the day France faces Togo, the very last day of the 2006 FIFA World Cup First Round. He will, however, miss this match due to suspension.

Merchandising

Zidane was sponsored by LEGO for a while and wore their logo. He was the official endorser of their Soccer/Football line (name varied to the "correct" one depending on the country it was being marketed in), and was also immortalised in plastic in the form of a LEGO minifigure of himself, available in several of the sets.

Zidane is also sponsored by Adidas, who supplies Zidane with the Predator boots and gear.

Personal Life

His wife, Veronique, is a former dancer and model of French-Spanish ancestry. They married in 1993 and have four sons named Enzo, Luca, Théo and Elyaz (إلياس).

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zinedine_Zidane&oldid=60167474"