Biography of Zinedine Zidane: – Considered one of the best players of the 90s, he gave numerous victories both to the French team and to the historic European clubs that could count on his services (Juventus Turin and Real Madrid).
After retiring in 2006, he began a trajectory as coach that would take him to the bench of Real Madrid in January of 2016.
Biography of Zinedine Zidane
- Born:- 23 June 1972 (age 45), Marseille, France
- Full Name:- Zinedine Yazid Zidane
- Height:- 1.85 m
- Spouse:- Véronique Zidane (m. 1994)
- Did You Know:- Zinedine Zidane is the 10th-most expensive Association Football transfer (£46.6 M, from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2001).
Zizou, a nickname by which he is also known, possessed as a player outstanding football qualities and a palmarés in which no title is missing: in addition to winning the World Cup and the Eurocopa with the French national team, he managed to become champion of League, Liga of Champions, of the Supercopa of Europe and of the Glass Intercontinental in its passage by the Juve and the Madrid.
See Also: Biography of Gianluigi Buffon
Within the field, Zinedine Zidane was an offensive midfielder who liked to run freely to organize his team’s offense; his exquisite technical quality, a powerful physique and a privileged vision of play made him a creative, unforeseeable and resourceful player: he could bargain, dribble, make walls, throw great passes or break a defense by speed.
In addition, his precision in the shot, that executed with both legs, it turned in a constant danger for the rival goalkeepers, who feared especially his pitches of direct lack.
Born to a family of Algerian emigrants, Zinedine Zidane practiced various sports, including judo, from a very early age, although it did not take much time before soccer took up most of his free time and became in his greatest passion; dreamed at the time to emulate his greatest idol, the brilliant Uruguayan Enzo Francescoli, a fine midfielder who was the star of Marseille’s Olympique.
After playing in several local teams, in 1986 the young Zinedine was hired by Cannes, one of whose leaders, Jean Claude Elineau, welcomed him in his own house.
His timid character and the apparent coldness that characterized him were not an impediment so that soon began to develop on the training fields all the football potential that was inside.
In May 1989, a month before his seventeenth birthday, Zinedine Zidane made his debut in the First Division with Cannes. In the season 1990-1991 marked its first goal in the French maximum category and in the following one took possession, playing more than thirty parties and reaching the number of five goals.
In 1992 he left Cannes to sign for the Girondins de Bordeaux, one of the most important clubs in France, where he was one of his pillars in his first year: he played thirty-five matches and scored ten goals, despite which has never been characterized as a great scorer.
His outstanding performances led him to debut with the national team in August 1994, in a game against the Czech Republic; by then, the Frenchman was going through a period of sporting hardship (he had been absent in the last two world championships), but a new generation of players, including Christoph Dugarry and Bixente Lizarazu, teammates in Bordeaux, contributed to a resurface that was reflected in a good performance in the Eurocopa of 1996.
Juventus and the World Cup
The magnificent impression he made on that occasion, together with a stellar season in the Girondins, led Zinedine Zidane to sign in the summer of 1996 for Juventus Turin, one of the most prestigious teams in Europe.
In “Calcio”, the demanding and competitive Italian league faced the most difficult challenge of his sports career, more if due to the unforgettable memory that in the Turin club had left in the eighties his compatriot Michel Platini.
Nevertheless, and despite the inevitable ups and downs and some injuries, Zidane was consecrated as one of the best European players.
Together with Italian Alessandro Del Piero, Zinedine Zidane formed a formidable attack tandem that led Juventus to win two league championships in 1997 and 1998, the European Super Cup and the 1996 Intercontinental Cup, and to play two consecutive finals of the Champions League (former European Cup), although on both occasions defeated with defeat: in 1997, against Borussia Dortmund, and in 1998, against Real Madrid.
In June of 1998, Zidane was the key piece for France to win the World Cup in which she played host, leading brilliantly the game of attack, and above all, scoring the first two goals in the final against Brazil, a success that, together with his excellent career with Juvent us, made him worthy that year of the prestigious Golden Ball.
His last two seasons in Italy were not as bright as the previous ones, in part because of the hard marks he was subjected to and also because of the irregularity shown by his team.
In Euro 2000, one of the best moments of his sports career, he showed signs of his immense class in each match and scored a decisive goal of penalty in the semifinal against Portugal.
With Real Madrid
From then on, when his stage in Italy was successfully completed, speculations began to emerge about his possible transfer to another great European club, almost always denied, but that finally came true in the summer of 2001 with his multimillionaire signing (more than 12,000 million pesetas, 72 million euros) by Real Madrid, a decision in which his marriage to a Spanish, Verónica Fernández Ramírez was influenced.
In the historic white club Zinedine Zidane went on to strengthen a squad that already had players of the stature of Raúl González, Portuguese Luis Figo or Brazilian Roberto Carlos, and with which he extended his already extensive list of titles after conquering the only great title which he did not yet possess: the Champions League (2002). In 2003 he won with the Madrid team the Spanish league.
Nevertheless, the drought of titles of the following years plunged to Real Madrid in a stage of crisis in which the same Zidane and other galactic players were questioned.
Zidane retired from professional football at the end of the World Cup in Germany (2006), in which he was named best player despite being sent off in the final.
Coach of Real Madrid
After his retirement from the competition, Zinedine Zidane continued to be linked to Real Madrid, becoming a presidential adviser in 2009, and shortly after starting his trajectory as a coach.
In the season 2013-2014 became assistant of the technician of the first equipment, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, and in the following two took charge like head trainer of the branch of Real Madrid, the Castile.
In January 2016, before the poor game and the poor results exhibited by the first team in the first phase of the 2015-2016 season, the president of the white club, Florentino Perez, wanted to entrust the bench to a man “from the house” as it was already Zidane , who happened to occupy the position of the deposed Rafa Benítez.
As head of one of the most important clubs in the world, the new coach of Real Madrid faced the major challenge of harmonizing the game of the very powerful individualities that make up the squad, signed in recent years by the president to hit book , with criteria not always football.
In spite of the critics and bad omens of some sectors for their lack of experience in the division of honor, it is certain that its promising debut (with thrashing against Deportivo) had the virtue to return the illusion to the white fans, who could appreciate a greater cohesion and intensity in the team and the good harmony between the squad and a coach who, in his short career, has proven to prioritize creativity and fun against the rigidity of tactical schemes.
Real Madrid had been eliminated from the Copa Del Rey by an absurd administrative error and was off-hook in the League; with the arrival of Zidane, the team gradually regained ground until finishing a point of the champion, but above all showed his best face in the top European competition:
The victory in the Champions League, which brought to the showcases of the eleventh European Cup, coupled with the grateful memories of his stage as a player, ensured his continuity as a coach and his entry into the reduced Olympus of experienced European coaches.
In the absence of major signings, Zidane has managed to maintain this positive line in the 2016-2017 seasons: in December 2016, the Whites enjoyed a comfortable advantage in the League and had won the second and third titles of the “Zidane era” the Supercopa de Europa and the Club World Cup.
