Zinedine Yazid Zidane
Nationality: French
23. July 1972.
185cm/80kg
Number: 5/10/21
Positions: ★ AM
Foot: R
Side: B
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Introduction
Zinedine Zidane is a retired French soccer player that is regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time by many.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows him leading France to 1998 World Cup Title, 2000 European Championship and 2006 World Cup final where the famous Zinedine Zidane Headbutt against Italian Marco Materazzi occurred leading to the last time we were to see this soccer maestro in action.
Zinedine Zidane retired from International and Club soccer with this final incident making headlines all around the world.
Although he was sent off in the final match of 2006 FIFA World Cup, Zinedine Zidane biography shows him still winning the Golden Ball for being the best player of the tournament.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Early Life
Zinedine Zidane comes from Algerian descent with the parents Smail and Malika migrating to Paris, France in 1953 from a small village called Aguemone in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylia in eastern Algeria before the start of Algerian War.
After struggling to find work in Paris, Zidane's parents moved to a suburb of La Castellane, Marseille during the mid 1960s where on June 23th, 1972 little Zinedine Zidane was born as the youngest of 5 siblings.
His father worked in a warehouse mostly night shifts while his mother was a housewife.
The house he lived in was so small that he and his siblings had to take turns to sit down and eat.
Growing up in La Castellane, Marseille Zidane fell in love with the sport at an early age of 5 while playing soccer with the neighborhood kids in the main square of the housing complex.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - YOUTH CLUBS
Zinedine Zidane youth playing days start with the local club US Saint-Henri from La Castellane with the junior squad.
After almost 2 years at US Saint-Henri Zidane cought the eye of SO Septemes Valons Coach Robert Centerero who convinced the club's director to get young Zidane.
Zinedine Zidane Biography shows him playing for Septemes until the age of 14 when he was spotted by AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud during a three-day training camp run by the French Football Federation.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Starts his professional career in Cannes
Zizou was invited for a six week trial at Cannes but would spend the next four years at the club earning a spot in the Cannes first team.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows that the Cannes director Jean-Claude Elineau helped young Zidane a lot by inviting him to leave the players dorms and come live with him and his family.
Zidane later said that it was living with Elineaus where he found equilibrium.
Zinedine Zidane biography states that his first professional match with Cannes was on May 18th, 1989 at the age of 17 in a league match against Nantes.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows that he scored his first goal for Cannes in a 2-1 win against Nantes on February 8th, 1991.
With his first goal came a gifted car from Cannes chairman Alain Pedretti, who had promised Zidane a car when he scores his first goal for the club.
During Zidane's first full season with the club, he managed to help Cannes secure its first ever European competition by qualifying for the UEFA Cup after finishing 4th in the league.
This remains the clubs highest finish in the top French league.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Move to Bordeaux
After spending 4 successful years at Cannes, young Zinedine Zidane biography continues at Girondins de Bordeaux where he was transferred in the 1992-93 season.
During the four years at the club Zidane had won the 1995 Intertoto Cup and helped Bordeaux finish as a runner up in the 1995-96 UEFA Cup.
During his time at Bordeaux Zidane played a midfield combination role alongside Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become trademark of both Bordeaux and French National team.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Star shines bright at Juventus
After winning the Champions League in 1996, Juventus went after young Zinedine Zidane paying £3.2 million (about $5 million) for his signature and service over the next five years.
Right after his arrival, Zizou helped Juventus win the 1996 Seria A Title and the 1996 Intercontinental cup.
He also helped Juve reach the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final but lost the match 3-1 against Borussia Dortmund.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows him playing better and better at Juventus scoring 7 goals in 32 matches and constantly creating chances for other players.
This helped Juventus win the 1997-98 Seria A Title and remain Italian Champions for two years in a row.
Zidane was part of Juventus squad that reached third consecutive UEFA Champions League Final, but again lost the final match 1-0 to Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane finished his career at Juventus scoring 24 goals in 151 matches and finishing his last two seasons with Juventus 2nd in 1999-2000 and 2000-01 Seria A.
Important to mention in this Zinedine Zidane biography is that his great performances alongside Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi led Zidane to a highest paid transfer at the time to Real Madrid.
Zidane was named Foreign Footballer of the Year twice while playing for Juventus.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - Record transfer at the time to Real Madrid
Having success with Juventus and constantly improving his game it was just a matter of time before some giant club would come in with an offer Zidane couldn't refuse and Real Madrid did just that.
In 2001 Zinedine Zidane biography continues with a move to Real Madrid for a record sum of 150 billion Italian Lira at the time (€75 million or $100 million) on a four year contract.
In 2002 Zidane shocked the world as he scored the winning goal with a famous Zidane Volley using his weaker left foot to volley the ball in the upper corner and help Real Madrid win the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final 2-1 against Bayer Leverkusen.
Trophies kept coming as he helped Real Madrid win the 2002-03 La Liga Title and winning the FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time in his career.
In 2004, fans voted Zidane as the best European soccer player of the previous 50 years in UEFA's fiftieth anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll.
In 2006 he announced his plan to retire from professional soccer after his contract runs out with Real Madrid in 2006.
His last season with Real Madrid Zidane finished his Club career with 9 goals and 10 assists in 28 games.
On May 7th, 2006 Zinedine Zidane played his last home match for Real Madrid, scoring one goal in a 3-3 draw against Villarreal FC.
Real Madrid squad wore commemorative shirts with Zidane 2001-2006 written below the club logo.
Zinedine Zidane Biography - INTERNATIONAL career with France
Zinedine Zidane earned his first cap with the French national team as a substitute in a friendly match against the Czech Republic on August 17th, 1994.
Zidane scored twice to tie the game 2-2 after being down 2-0 against the Czech Republic.
He helped France reach the semi finals during the Euro 96 but France was knocked out in a penalty shootout against Czech Republic, after the match ended 0-0 in regular time.
1998 World Cup was the first World Cup Zidane participated in and this years tournament was held in his home country France.
Zidane played a major role in the midfield helping France advance through the group stages but missing the last sixteen match against Paraguay due to being sent off against Saudi Arabia in the group stages.
On his return to the French side, Zidane helped France defeat Italy 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw in the quarter finals and than he helped France win the semi final against Croatia which ended in a 2-1 score.
Zidane played big part in France accomplishment but he had yet to score a goal in the World Cup.
France went on to the final where they played World Cup defending champions Brazil.
To everyone's surprise France dominated the game from the first half kick off.
Zinedine Zidane finally scored his first and second World Cup goal as he shook the net with two almost identical goals, both headers from a corner kick delivered by Emmanuel Petit and Youri Djorkaeff.
Petit added the third goal to seal the victory and win the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Two years later Zidane helped France win the Euro 2000 becoming the first national team to win both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany did it in 1974.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows his scoring 2 goals and being named player of the tournament by UEFA.
Zinedine Zidane and the French side were the favorites for the 2002 World Cup but a thigh injury prevented Zidane from playing in the first two matches where France failed to score in both matches.
Zidane was rushed back for the third game despite not being fully fit to play.
France failed to score any goals and was knocked out in the group stages which was recorded as worst performance by the defending Champions in the history of the competition.
At Euro 2004, France was first in their group but would be knocked out by Greece in a surprise 1-0 loss during the quarter final.
Greece went on to surprise the whole world by winning the Euro 2004 as Zinedine Zidane announced his retirement from International Soccer.
As most French veteran key players such are Bixente Lizarazu, Marcel Desailly, Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane retired from International soccer, France was struggling to even qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
This led to Coach Raymond Domenech asking Zidane into coming out of retirement and helping his French side qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows him, along with Thuram and Makelele coming out of retirement and captaining France in a 3-0 win over the Faroe Islands on September 3th, 2005.
The trio helped France rise from the 4th place in the qualifying rounds to eventually winning the 1st place in their group.
Zinedine Zidane biography shows that on May 27th, 2006 he earned his 100th cap for France in a 1-0 friendly win over Mexico.
He became only the 4th player to reach 100 caps with the French side after Desailly, Thuram and Didier Deschamps did it.
Zidane helped France get to the 2006 World Cup final by setting up a goal for teammate Patrick Viera and scoring one himself to win the second round match against Spain.
Zinedine Zidane and France met with Brazil during the quarter final where France held Brazil to only one shot on goal and eventually Zidane would provide an assist to Thierry Henry who converted it into the only goal of the match securing a spot for France in the semi final against Portugal.
Zidane was named Man of the Match by FIFA after helping France win the quarter final match against Brazil.
France faced Portugal in the semi final where Zidane decided the contest from a penalty kick sending France to another major final to face Italy.
Before the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Berlin, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament.
Having announced retirement from both club and international soccer after the 2006 World Cup, everyone knew that this final would also be the last match of his career.
Only 7 minutes into the match Zidane would convert a penalty kick to give France 1-0 lead and also become only the 4th player in World Cup history to score a goal in two different finals.
Italy came back to tie the game in the second half to 1-1 and force it into extra time.
In 110th minute of extra time Zidane ended his professional career with a red card after headbutting Marco Materazzi (who had insulted Zidane's sister) in the chest.
He later said that he "would rather die than apologize to Materazzi".
Italy went on to win the 2006 World Cup after beating France 5-3 on penalties, the game ended 1-1 after extra time.
Following the red card, Zinedine Zidane confirmed that his professional soccer career on club and international level has come to an end and that he would not go back on his decision.
Zinedine Zidane is regarded as one of the greatest soccer players ever lived by many other soccer legends such are Pele, Beckenbauer, Beckham, Roberto Carlos and many others.
He is still active in the Real Madrid squad as the sporting director and has done many charity events.
Michel Platini
"Technically, I think he is the king of what's fundamental in the game – control and passing. I don't think anyone can match him when it comes to controlling or receiving the ball."
Franz Beckenbauer
"Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player."
Pele
"Zidane is the magician in the game."
Italy manager Marcello Lippi "I think Zidane is the greatest talent we've known in football these last 20 years, yet he never played the prima donna. I am honored to have been his manager."
David Beckham
"Zidane is the greatest of all time."
Xavi Hernandez
"Zidane is the '90s and early 2000's best player."
At the 1998 World Cup, Cesare Maldini, the manager of the Italian team, said: "I would give up five players to have Zizou in my squad."
In 2011 Uefa.com asked players, journalist and their users to crown the best player in the UEFA Champions League of the past 20 years, Zidane topped the poll ahead of Lionel Messi.
