Zinedine Zidane

Lore & Background

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, and ball control. He received many individual accolades as a player, including being named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2003, and winning the 1998 Ballon d'Or. He coached his former club Real Madrid in two separate stints between 2016 and 2021, winning multiple domestic and international club trophies. Zidane started his career at Cannes before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Ligue 1 at Bordeaux. In 1996, he moved to Italian club Juventus, where he won two Serie A titles and played in consecutive UEFA Champions League finals in 1997 and 1998. He moved to Real Madrid for a world-record fee at the time of €77.5 million in 2001, which remained a record for the next eight years. In Spain, Zidane won several trophies, including a La Liga title and the Champions League. In the 2002 Champions League final, he scored a left-foot volleyed winner that is considered one of the greatest goals in football history. In 2012 and 2017, respectively, Zidane was named in Real Madrid's and Juventus's greatest XI of all time. Capped 108 times by France, Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring a brace in the final, and was named in the All-Star team. This triumph made him a national hero in France and he received the Legion of Honour in 1998. He won UEFA Euro 2000 and was named Player of the Tournament. He also received the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup, despite his infamous sending off in the final against Italy for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest. He retired as the fourth-most capped player in French history. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world's greatest living players compiled by Pelé, and in the same year was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. Zidane is one of eleven players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or. He was the ambassador for Qatar's successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, the first Arab country to host the tournament. After retiring as a player, Zidane began his coaching career at Real Madrid Castilla. He remained in the position for two years, before managing the first team in 2016. In his initial three seasons, Zidane became the fir

Reader's Guide

Zinedine Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in La Castellane, a neighbourhood in the 16th arrondissement of Marseille, in Southern France. He is the youngest of five siblings born to Algerian parents Smaïl and Malika, who had immigrated to Paris from the village of Aguemoune in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylia in 1953, before the start of the Algerian War. The family moved to the northern Marseille suburb of La Castellane in the mid-1960s. His father worked as a warehouseman and security guard at a department store, often on the night shift, while his mother was a housewife. Zidane had his earliest introduction to football at age five, playing on the Place Tartane. At age ten, he joined US Saint-Henri, then SO Septèmes-les-Vallons. At 14, he was spotted by AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud. He made his professional debut for Cannes on 18 May 1989 against Nantes, and scored his first goal for the club on 10 February 1991 also against Nantes. He transferred to Bordeaux in 1992–93, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and finishing runner-up in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup. In 1996, he moved to Juventus, winning the 1996–97 Serie A title and the 1996 Intercontinental Cup. He was named Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year in his first season.

Did You Know?

• Zidane scored a left-foot volleyed winner in the 2002 Champions League final, considered one of the greatest goals in football history.
• He is one of eleven players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or.
• Zidane became the first and only coach to win the Champions League three consecutive times.
• He received the Legion of Honour in 1998 after winning the World Cup.
• Zidane was the ambassador for Qatar's successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Sometimes I don't know what takes me over during a game. Sometimes I just feel I have moved to a different place and I can make the pass, score the goal or go past my marker at will." — Zinedine Zidane "It was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up." — Zinedine Zidane "It's hard to explain but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard. And this desire never to stop fighting is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up." — Zinedine Zidane "Zidane is the master. Over the past 10 years, there's been no-one like him, he has been the best player in the world." — Zinedine Zidane