ZAIN-UD-DIN ZIDANE:
For the next few minutes, I'm gonna glorify the most glorious player in the World. Read on, fellow Gooners.This post is long, so keep some nosh next to you, just in case
Zidane was born Zainuddin Zidane to Monsieur Ismael and Madame Mallika Zidane, of Algerian Kabylie heritage in the port town of Marseilles, France. Zizou began playing street football at the age of five, by which time he was already ingrained with his never say die attitude. Zidane's role model was Euro 1984 winner Michel Platini, who he tried to emulate. Zizou once said, "When me and my friends played on the street, we used to pretend to be real footballers. I was always Platini."
Zizou was picked up by AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud, who invited him to Cannes for a six-week trial. However, so mesmirising was he at Cannes that the then French almost-unknown midfielder stayed there for four years, making his full debut at the tender age of 17. His fourth year at Cannes culminated in the awarding of a UEFA Cup berth. Zidane sought more Ligue 1 action in the form of a move to FC Girondins de Bordeaux. At le Massif Centrale, Zizou won the Intertoto Cup, which guaranteed les Girondins a place in the UEFA Cup, where he finished runner-up, thus signalling only the start of an illustrious career.
In 1996, Zidane moved to Turin with Italian Titans FC Juventus Torino, for an estimated fee of just 3 million (yes, non-Zizou fans, you might snigger at this point, but then again, you're gonna read about his achievements in full below, so please do continue reading) and won the 1996 Scudetto and the Intercontinental Cup and helped retain the Scudetto next season. 'Twas at Turinthat he fine tuned his style of cool, calm, composed play which was the perfect amalgamation of fire and ice, wowing audiences worldwide with display after awesome display of well, awesomeness.
In 2001, Zizou joined Real Madrid CF for a then record breaking fee of 76 million euros (how agonising that WOTY broke this record) where every touch of his on the ball was greeted with raucous cheers. He was the bloke who made everything happen. One of the galactico elite alongside David Beckham, Luis Figo, Luis Ronaldo, Raul Gonzalez, Michel Salgado, Roberto Carlos and Claude Makelele (to name the entire extended Galactico family), and scored the match winning goal (an absolute belter of a shot) against Bayer Leverkeusen, in the UEFA Champions League Final, completing a unique quadruple (Ha! Beat that, WOTY!)
On the international scenario, Zidane's first international tournament was Euro 1996, where he showed the world what exactly he was capable of, even though France exited the tourney in the semis.
Arguably, his finest moment with Les Bleus was during the FIFA World Cup in 1998 where France won the trophy in L'Hexagone, beating Brazil 3 - 0 in the final. Anyway, tha's all ancient history. All we need to remember is that Zizou won the World Cup, and no Man U (Barthez was at Marseille, Blanc at Inter), Chelsea or Liverpool player has done it in the last so many years. (Read Vieira, Pires, Henry, Trezeguet)
More glory was to follow in Belgium and the Netherlands where Zizou's Bleus coasted to the final and won the coveted Henri Delaunay trophy, setting up David Trezeguet for the Golden Goal against perennial rivals Italy in the final, after Sylvain Wiltord (yet another ex-Gunner) finagled an equaliser in the dying seconds of the game). That, indeed was the stuff dreams are made of and it was indeed a dream run for Zidane so far. He added to his already impressive trophy collection with the Confederations Cup in 2001.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. During the 2002 FIFA World Cup a Zidane-less France was gobsmacked by Senegal and then held to a goalless draw by Uruguay, as the great man, alongwith Pires was out due to an injury. Zizou - still not fully fit - was choppered in for the last game against Denmark, but France, already woebegone, capitulated to Denmark and left Japorea without scoring a single goal.
France redeemed themselves slightly by winning the 2003 Confederations Cup, and added to that by making a clean sweep of the group phases at Euro 2004, where Zizou single-handedly turned the English Three Lions into a bunch of yowling pussycats. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for France, as they were unceremoniously dumped out by eventual winners Greece. Zidane bid adieu to international football.... or so it seemed.
As France began to qualify for the World Cup, it could be easily seen that Les Bleus were les Very Very Pale Bleus or only a shadow of their former selves. Under the circumstances, the Thespian prick who is an excuse for a coach - Raymond Domenech - persuaded the Golden Generation - Zidane, Thuram, Makelele - to return to international football, which made the entire known world stand up and take ntoice, as Le Maestro began to do what he does so well yet again: win. France finally qualified for the World Cup on top of their table.
Unfortunately, things didn't go all hunky-dory for Les Bleus as Zizou picked up a couple of jizz-coloured yellow cards during the first two opening games of the Group phases, both of them draws against Switzerland (0-0) and South Korea (1-1). Zizou avoided a backdoor exit from his last international tournament as France beat Adebayor's Togo 2-0 with goals from Thierry Henry and Stand-in Captain Patrick Vieira (Come on, Arsenal!), who was turning 30 that day, although David Trezeguet had two goals chalked off as he was wrongly judged offside (Does the name Valentin Ivanov ring a bell here?). Another birthday boy, Zidane, watched from the stands as Les Bleus limped through to the Round of Sixteen.
Against Spain, Zizou produced rolled back the years as he cut the Spanish defence to ribbons after Villa scored from the spot as Pernia was bundled over by Thuram. Zizou fed Ribery who slalomed past the Spanish defence and rounded Casillas to bring the French back on terms. Zizou magic dominated the second half as Vieira rocketed home a close range header early in the second half, while Zidane provided the icing on the cake by latching onto a pass from Sylvain Wiltord and stroked the ball home past former clubmate Iker Casillas. The Samba Brigade came calling next, and on a night when Zidane has one of his days, he is unstoppable. Unfortunately for La Seleccion, Le Maestro was in his element, and he made Cafu, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano look silly as he whizzed past them time and time again. It looked like Zizou had saved his best for last, and things were only looking up for the French. Zidane's free kick was slotted home by Henry, while Roberto Carlos, who was supposed to marking him, was distracted by his shoelaces.... yes Roberto, we've all seen them... just look down.... those knotted things holding your shoes together... yep, thats 'em. Portugal were ousted next, as Zidane scored from the spot, to send them into the finals of the Cup. WOTY was unconsolable, having earned the ire of almost all of England by getting Wayne Rooney (!) sent off earlier, the circle had come back, thwacking him in the dingalings.
For the next few minutes, I'm gonna glorify the most glorious player in the World. Read on, fellow Gooners.This post is long, so keep some nosh next to you, just in case
Zidane was born Zainuddin Zidane to Monsieur Ismael and Madame Mallika Zidane, of Algerian Kabylie heritage in the port town of Marseilles, France. Zizou began playing street football at the age of five, by which time he was already ingrained with his never say die attitude. Zidane's role model was Euro 1984 winner Michel Platini, who he tried to emulate. Zizou once said, "When me and my friends played on the street, we used to pretend to be real footballers. I was always Platini."
Zizou was picked up by AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud, who invited him to Cannes for a six-week trial. However, so mesmirising was he at Cannes that the then French almost-unknown midfielder stayed there for four years, making his full debut at the tender age of 17. His fourth year at Cannes culminated in the awarding of a UEFA Cup berth. Zidane sought more Ligue 1 action in the form of a move to FC Girondins de Bordeaux. At le Massif Centrale, Zizou won the Intertoto Cup, which guaranteed les Girondins a place in the UEFA Cup, where he finished runner-up, thus signalling only the start of an illustrious career.
In 1996, Zidane moved to Turin with Italian Titans FC Juventus Torino, for an estimated fee of just 3 million (yes, non-Zizou fans, you might snigger at this point, but then again, you're gonna read about his achievements in full below, so please do continue reading) and won the 1996 Scudetto and the Intercontinental Cup and helped retain the Scudetto next season. 'Twas at Turinthat he fine tuned his style of cool, calm, composed play which was the perfect amalgamation of fire and ice, wowing audiences worldwide with display after awesome display of well, awesomeness.
In 2001, Zizou joined Real Madrid CF for a then record breaking fee of 76 million euros (how agonising that WOTY broke this record) where every touch of his on the ball was greeted with raucous cheers. He was the bloke who made everything happen. One of the galactico elite alongside David Beckham, Luis Figo, Luis Ronaldo, Raul Gonzalez, Michel Salgado, Roberto Carlos and Claude Makelele (to name the entire extended Galactico family), and scored the match winning goal (an absolute belter of a shot) against Bayer Leverkeusen, in the UEFA Champions League Final, completing a unique quadruple (Ha! Beat that, WOTY!)
On the international scenario, Zidane's first international tournament was Euro 1996, where he showed the world what exactly he was capable of, even though France exited the tourney in the semis.
Arguably, his finest moment with Les Bleus was during the FIFA World Cup in 1998 where France won the trophy in L'Hexagone, beating Brazil 3 - 0 in the final. Anyway, tha's all ancient history. All we need to remember is that Zizou won the World Cup, and no Man U (Barthez was at Marseille, Blanc at Inter), Chelsea or Liverpool player has done it in the last so many years. (Read Vieira, Pires, Henry, Trezeguet)
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| Zain-ud-din Zidane |
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| Zain-ud-din Zidane |
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| Zain-ud-din Zidane |
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| saying bye bye to the fans and football |
More glory was to follow in Belgium and the Netherlands where Zizou's Bleus coasted to the final and won the coveted Henri Delaunay trophy, setting up David Trezeguet for the Golden Goal against perennial rivals Italy in the final, after Sylvain Wiltord (yet another ex-Gunner) finagled an equaliser in the dying seconds of the game). That, indeed was the stuff dreams are made of and it was indeed a dream run for Zidane so far. He added to his already impressive trophy collection with the Confederations Cup in 2001.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. During the 2002 FIFA World Cup a Zidane-less France was gobsmacked by Senegal and then held to a goalless draw by Uruguay, as the great man, alongwith Pires was out due to an injury. Zizou - still not fully fit - was choppered in for the last game against Denmark, but France, already woebegone, capitulated to Denmark and left Japorea without scoring a single goal.
France redeemed themselves slightly by winning the 2003 Confederations Cup, and added to that by making a clean sweep of the group phases at Euro 2004, where Zizou single-handedly turned the English Three Lions into a bunch of yowling pussycats. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for France, as they were unceremoniously dumped out by eventual winners Greece. Zidane bid adieu to international football.... or so it seemed.
As France began to qualify for the World Cup, it could be easily seen that Les Bleus were les Very Very Pale Bleus or only a shadow of their former selves. Under the circumstances, the Thespian prick who is an excuse for a coach - Raymond Domenech - persuaded the Golden Generation - Zidane, Thuram, Makelele - to return to international football, which made the entire known world stand up and take ntoice, as Le Maestro began to do what he does so well yet again: win. France finally qualified for the World Cup on top of their table.
Unfortunately, things didn't go all hunky-dory for Les Bleus as Zizou picked up a couple of jizz-coloured yellow cards during the first two opening games of the Group phases, both of them draws against Switzerland (0-0) and South Korea (1-1). Zizou avoided a backdoor exit from his last international tournament as France beat Adebayor's Togo 2-0 with goals from Thierry Henry and Stand-in Captain Patrick Vieira (Come on, Arsenal!), who was turning 30 that day, although David Trezeguet had two goals chalked off as he was wrongly judged offside (Does the name Valentin Ivanov ring a bell here?). Another birthday boy, Zidane, watched from the stands as Les Bleus limped through to the Round of Sixteen.
Against Spain, Zizou produced rolled back the years as he cut the Spanish defence to ribbons after Villa scored from the spot as Pernia was bundled over by Thuram. Zizou fed Ribery who slalomed past the Spanish defence and rounded Casillas to bring the French back on terms. Zizou magic dominated the second half as Vieira rocketed home a close range header early in the second half, while Zidane provided the icing on the cake by latching onto a pass from Sylvain Wiltord and stroked the ball home past former clubmate Iker Casillas. The Samba Brigade came calling next, and on a night when Zidane has one of his days, he is unstoppable. Unfortunately for La Seleccion, Le Maestro was in his element, and he made Cafu, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Adriano look silly as he whizzed past them time and time again. It looked like Zizou had saved his best for last, and things were only looking up for the French. Zidane's free kick was slotted home by Henry, while Roberto Carlos, who was supposed to marking him, was distracted by his shoelaces.... yes Roberto, we've all seen them... just look down.... those knotted things holding your shoes together... yep, thats 'em. Portugal were ousted next, as Zidane scored from the spot, to send them into the finals of the Cup. WOTY was unconsolable, having earned the ire of almost all of England by getting Wayne Rooney (!) sent off earlier, the circle had come back, thwacking him in the dingalings.
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| christiano Ronaldo is sad on the event of retirement of the glorious player zain-ud-din zidane |
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| Zain-ud-din Zidane |
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