When Pelé considers you a better soccer player than Lionel Messi, you know you’ve done something right.
You could fire any pass at Zidane that you wanted. It wouldn’t matter what speed or height the ball was driven into him; Zizou would have the ball under control, then glide beyond his opponent before you could say, “Champion du monde.” A storied legacy is a fruit borne from his brand of soccer, which was more artistic than academic.
Arguably the best Champions League final goal in history was sandwiched between contrasting emotions in separate World Cup finals. It’s difficult to decide which final is more iconic.
What isn’t up for debate is that Zinedine Zidane is one of the finest players to ever grace a soccer field. A generational talent that we may never see the like of again.
Making his name
Zidane grew up in the notoriously dangerous and impoverished neighborhood of La Castellane, Marseille.
It’s not uncommon for people from the ‘banlieues’ (a term usually loaded with negative connotations, often reserved for poorer suburbs with high concentrations of ethnic minorities) to be looked upon with disdain by those in more affluent regions of the country. It’s easy to see why someone would develop a chip on their shoulder.
Little did Zinedine know during his formative years, when he was kicking the ball around with his friends, that he would one day become an icon of the city and an idol for so many youngsters aspiring to achieve even a fraction of what he would.
Zinedine didn’t have to head too far along the French southern coast to find his first professional contract; despite its relatively close proximity to his deprived suburb of Marseille, the wealth and glamor of Cannes must’ve seemed like a completely different world.
His highlights from those formative at Les Dragons prove that he’s always possessed exceptional footwork, poise, and vision, despite appearing a little unrefined in those days. AS Cannes enjoyed impressive league finishes when Zizou became a regular. In fact, the club has not finished as high in French football since his departure.
His ability to gallop forward, creating space when others would undoubtedly be crowded out, earned him suitors. In 1992, Zinedine Zidane was sold to FC Girondins de Bordeaux. It was then that everybody began to sit up and take notice. Well, maybe not everybody; the Blackburn Rovers chairman Jack Walker reportedly snubbed the chance to sign Zidane because they already had Tim Sherwood.
Italian Job
Juventus noticed his qualities from afar and took him for a relative snip of around $5,000,000. In Turin, Zizou went from a promising prospect to an established star.
Legendary manager Carlo Ancelotti credits Zidane with transforming his tactical mindset; as soon as he began watching him close up, Ancelotti knew that he could alter his formation from his favored 4-4-2 to optimize Zidane’s qualities. This opened up all sorts of avenues for Ancelotti to explore formational flexibility depending on what was required.
Serie A was quickly acknowledging how effortlessly Zidane could shift the ball from one foot to the other in his stride, his close control mimicked a ball on an elastic string, and his ability to halt his motion in an instant, then restart at pace, as if he’d never stopped at all, leaving defenders panting in his shadows.
As painful as a UEFA Cup final loss with Bordeaux would have felt, two consecutive Champions League final losses with the Old Lady could have convinced many soccer players that they were destined to be the perennial silver medalist.
Zizou can look back fondly on his time in Italy fondly, however, with two league winner’s medals to his name and a fully established reputation as a top-tier player.
A nation’s poster boy
It’s no secret that the cities of Marseille and Paris share an intense football rivalry, but on July 12th, 1998, Marseille’s favorite son became the darling of Paris.
While navigating their path out of the group stage of the tournament was routine for France, they found the knock-out stages less straightforward. France was stuttering along but still managing to find something when they needed it most at each stage.
Yet, if you want to become world champions, there’s bound to be a stern test of your mettle. Their toughest assignment came at the last hurdle: a World Cup final versus defending champions and serial winners Brazil.
Les Bleus needed a legendary performance. Step up, Zinedine Zidane.
In his first World Cup, rather than cower under national pressure, Zizou commandingly powered home two first-half headers to send France on their way to victory. Thanks to their marauding talisman, France had finally conquered the world.
The Champs-Elysees erupted into a partying frenzy once Didier Deschamps held the trophy aloft following their conclusive 3-0 victory over Brazil, and they had Zidane to thank for dragging them over the finish line. Zidane became something of a sporting deity in France, achieving soccer immortality.
To add to his Serie A title win that season, Zidane was rewarded for his heroics by being made a Knight of the Legion of Honor, one of the highest accolades possible in France. An already unforgettable year saw him earn the prestigious Ballon d’Or to boot.
Banishing European demons
In the Spanish capital, Real Madrid was building an all-star ensemble, the European Globetrotters, or as they came to be known throughout soccer: the ‘Galácticos.’ The club’s president wanted Zinedine Zidane front and center of his campaign.
Los Blancos shattered the world transfer fee record for Zidane, taking him from Juventus for approximately $67,000,000. That’s a decent profit from the Italian club’s point of view, but replacing Zizou was an impossible task.
Zidane’s icon status was no longer limited to France and Turin; he was now globally revered. Every young soccer fan wanted an early 00s Real Madrid jersey with “ZIDANE 5” on the back.
Critics wanted to find out whether Real Madrid could deliver on the expensive promises they made. Well, by Real Madrid’s remarkably high standards, this crop of players largely underwhelmed. Only one league title was added to the Bernabéu trophy room (several rooms, actually) in Zidane’s five years with the club.
However, it was at Hampden Park that Zidane went a long way in paying back some of that huge transfer fee.
With half-time approaching in the 2002 Champions League final, Real Madrid found themselves level against the stubborn Bayer Leverkusen. Raúl’s quick thinking put Los Blancos ahead, but defensive giant Lúcio made sure the Germans weren’t behind for long.
While the interchange was neat, Real Madrid’s Solari sent teammate Roberto Carlos on an optimistic chase towards the corner flag after an adventurous foray downfield. The left-back had little option other than lofting a rather hopeful high ball towards Leverkusen’s penalty area. 99 players out of 100 would attempt to control the ball, then lay it off to an overlapping teammate. Zidane had other ideas.
You can practice as many defensive drills as you like. You can adjust your organizational strategy to cope with all sorts of attacking threats. What you can’t account for is that your opponent will volley the ball from the edge of the box with his weaker foot, generating an extraordinary amount of power given his stance, and direct the shot precisely into the top corner, leaving the goalkeeper with no chance. Most professionals could only dream of catching that volley with their strong foot!
The Glasgow attendees couldn’t believe what they’d witnessed. At the risk of sounding reductive to Bayer Leverkusen’s dominant second-half performance, when something this phenomenal happens against you, you know it’s not going to be your night.
The magazine France Football named it the greatest Champions League goal ever. In one fateful swing of his leg, Zidane won Real Madrid their ninth European Cup and ensured that his name would forever be synonymous with this competition’s rich tapestry.
Materazzi madness
Even some of life’s most beautiful stories have sour endings. The ignominious finale to Zidane’s otherwise magnificent career sent shockwaves across the globe, proving that chaos was bubbling under the poetic surface we saw, just waiting to burst through.
His first senior manager, Jean Varraud, describes Zinedine as having a short temper when he first arose on the professional scene – the youngster threw a punch when an opponent mocked his heritage and background. You can surely understand his grievance.
However, rather than having his anger spill out in violent bursts, Varraud wanted him to channel that aggression by using it to fuel his soccer ambitions.
Before the 2006 World Cup began, Zinedine Zidane announced to the world that he would be retiring from professional soccer at the end of the tournament. The day a generation of fans feared was finally upon them, but there was anticipation that the great man could pull off one more miracle.
France was awarded an early penalty in the 2006 World Cup final. Who else would you want to take it? Zidane produced a nonchalant chip from twelve yards that kissed the bar and narrowly crossed the goal line.
The footage shows Gennaro Gattuso, a notoriously feisty customer, biting at the heels of Zizou all match, clearly tasked with disrupting the tempo that Zidane was predicted to dictate. Zinedine kept his cool throughout regulation time, though, and led his team into extra time.
If it weren’t for the fingertips of Gianluigi Buffon, France would’ve retaken the lead in extra time from a glancing Zidane header. Yet 1-1 it remained, and then came the unexpected.
Marco Materazzi clearly uttered something in the direction of Zidane, and although the cameras didn’t pick the incident up live, Zizou lost his cool. He violently headbutted the Italian defender in the chest, hurtling him to the ground in agony. The collective jaw of the global audience dropped to the floor when the replay hit TV screens.
Marco Materazzi evoked a seismic reaction on the grandest of stages.
Although the referee didn’t see the incident, one of his assistants did, and this was enough to issue Zinedine Zidane a red card in his final soccer match. Many years later, followed by countless rumors surrounding the issue, Materazzi admitted that he insulted Zinedine’s sister in their confrontation, sparking chaos.
Italy went on to beat France in a penalty shoot-out and lift the World Cup. Ask anybody who was old enough to remember that World Cup, and they’ll recount the ubiquitous image of a dejected Zidane trudging past the World Cup trophy on its plinth.
Zidane’s playing career ended more like a Shakesperian tragedy than the fairytale that was scripted. Two of the game’s crucial moments came from Zizou, juxtaposed within this dramatic swan song.
A penny for the thoughts of Jean Varraud when Zidane’s head thundered into Materazzi.
Continued success
It would be remiss of me not to mention Zizou’s managerial achievements. After taking some time to enjoy his retirement from playing, he jumped back into the soccer world by developing his coaching competencies as an assistant at Real Madrid and then leading the reserve level before becoming the boss of their senior team.
His major honors as manager included two La Liga titles and an unprecedented three consecutive Champions League victories to further bolster his legacy associated with the competition.
Yet, this is an article on his playing career. A career that seemed unlikely given he had to overcome difficult childhood surroundings. These circumstances must’ve been character-building, knowing that his life could’ve gone so differently.
This is an underdog story, one where the main character, equipped with unwavering determination and gifted with breathtaking skill, becomes a beacon of hope to those facing societal and economic challenges. He never forgot his humble roots, and he made sure that all of us would remember the name: Zinedine Zidane. Mission accomplished.