Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane
Personal information
Full name Zinedine Yazid Zidane
Date of birth 23 June 1972 (age 35)

Place of birth Marseille, France

Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Attacking midfielder (retired)









Zinedine Yazid Zidane (pronounced [ˌzineˈdin jaziːd ziˈdan ]; born 23 June 1972 in Marseille), popularly nicknamed Zizou, is a French former professional footballer of Algerian Kabyle Berber descent. A midfielder, he was a member of the French national team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000, and was also the recipient of the Golden Ball where he captained the French side to the 2006 World Cup final; a match that saw his career end in controversy after he was sent off for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi.
He played for four European clubs, including Juventus and Real Madrid, with whom he won Serie A and La Liga championships, including lifting the 2002 UEFA Champions League trophy with Real after scoring the match-winning goal. One of only two three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winners (Ronaldo the other), he also finished in the top three an additional three occasions, and was also named European Footballer of the Year in 1998. In 2004, fans voted him atop UEFA's fiftieth-anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll, and he was included in Pelé's selection of the 125 greatest living footballers.
Zidane retired from professional football after the 2006 FIFA World Cup

Club career
Early career, Cannes and Bordeaux (1988–1996)
Zidane got an early start in football when he joined the junior team of US Saint-Henri, a local club in the La Castellane district of Marseille. At the age of fourteen, he left Septemes and participated in the first-year junior selection for the league championship, where he caught the attention of AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud. He went to Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level. Zidane played his first Ligue 1 match at seventeen, and scored his first goal on 8 February 1991, for which he received a car as a gift from the team president. His first season with Cannes eventually culminated in a UEFA Cup berth.
Zidane transferred to FC Girondins de Bordeaux for the 1992-93 season, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and finishing runner-up in the 1995-96 UEFA Cup in four years with the club. He played a set of midfield combinations with Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become the trademark of both Bordeaux and the 1998 French national team. In 1995, Blackburn Rovers coach Kenny Dalglish had expressed interest in signing both Zidane and Dugarry, to which team owner Jack Walker reportedly replied, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood

Juventus (1996–2001

In 1996, Zidane moved to Champions League winners Juventus F.C. for a fee of £3 million. Zidane served as the top playmaker in Marcello Lippi's team as Juventus won the 1996-97 Scudetto and the Intercontinental Cup with a 1-0 win over River Plate. He also reached the 1997 UEFA Champions League final, which Juventus lost 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund.
He netted 7 goals in 32 matches to help Juventus retain the Scudetto the following season and make their second consecutive UEFA Champions League final appearance, losing 1-0 to Real Madrid. In the 2000-01 Serie A season Juventus finished second, two points behind champions AS Roma. In total, he scored 24 league goals over five seasons for Juventus, winning an Intercontinental Cup, the 1999 Intertoto Cup, in addition to the two Scudetti
.
Real Madrid (2001–2006)
In 2001, Zidane joined Real Madrid for €76 million, the most expensive transfer fee in football history, and signed a four-year contract.
He enjoyed a steady run of success on the individual and team fronts, beginning with a spectacular winning volley in a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final in Glasgow. The next season, Real Madrid won the European Super Cup, and in addition to winning the 2003 Spanish Super Cup, Zidane was named the 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time, joining Ronaldo and Birgit Prinz as the only three-time winners of the award.
Despite scoring his first-ever hat-trick in 4-2 win over Sevilla FC, Zidane's final season of club football was less fruitful, as Madrid were eliminated early from the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, and finished the league 12 points behind champions FC Barcelona.
On May 7, 2006, Zidane, who had announced his impending retirement the month before, played his last home match at the Bernabéu, scoring in a 3-3 draw with Villarreal CF. His teammates wore commemorative jerseys with "ZIDANE 2001–2006" stitched below the club logo. The home fans cheered Zidane throughout the match, after which he swapped jerseys with Villarreal midfielder Juan Román Riquelme and was then given an ovation with the audience chanting "merci", which left him in tears
.
International career
Zidane holds dual citizenship in both France and Algeria, and therefore was eligible to play for the Algerian national team, but coach Abdelhamid Kermali allegedly denied him a position because he felt the young midfielder was not fast enough. Zidane dismissed the rumour in a 2005 interview, saying that playing for Algeria was out of the question since he had already suited up for France.
He earned his first cap with France after coming on as a substitute in the 63rd minute of a friendly against the Czech Republic on 17 August 1994. The match ended in a 2-2 draw after Zidane scored twice to help France erase a 2-0 deficit.



European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) awarded to Zidane in 1998
At that time, manager Aimé Jacquet had planned to position the team's formation around Manchester United star Eric Cantona, but after Cantona was handed a year-long suspension in January 1995 after assaulting a fan, Jacquet re-arranged the team and positioned Zidane as playmaker. Despite criticism from fans and pundits regarding the choice of players, France made it to the Euro 1996 semifinals, where France were eliminated in a penalty shootout by the Czech Republic after the match ended 0-0 in extra time
.
1998World Cup
During France's second match of the first round, Zidane received a red card and a two-game suspension in a 4-0 win over Saudi Arabia after he stomped on Saudi defender Fuad Amin. Reports from people close to Zidane stated that Amin had provoked him verbally. After netting in the penalty shootout in the quarter-final against Italy, he scored his two other goals of the tournament off headers in the first half of the final against Brazil as France won the match 3-0 and obtained their first World Cup
.
2000 European Championship




A Zidane shirt, number 10 in France
Zidane helped his team reach the Euro 2000 final with inspired play and important goals. He scored a direct free kick in the quarter-final against Spain, along with a controversial golden goal penalty in the semi-finals against Portugal. France went on to defeat Italy in the final, thus becoming the first team to hold both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany in 1974. Subsequently, France were ranked first in the world by FIFA
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