Les Bleus (1 Viewer)
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Feature: In a class of his own
"God is back!" enthused no less a footballing divinity than Thierry Henry when the news broke that Zinedine Zidane intended to slip on his old France shirt. It was the ultimate feelgood moment for French supporters, bringing with it the possibility of renewed success while, paradoxically, making any future disappointments easier to bear - because Les Bleus make sense again, the sums all add up and if Zizou can't get it done, well, perhaps it just isn't meant to be.
In a sense, though, the three-time World Player of the Year was never gone. Incessant chants of 'Zizou Zizou' plagued Raymond Domenech's new-look side in the wake of the great man's international retirement in August 2004, and the songs are unlikely to change now. Neither is it uniquely the French who will be delighted to see him back in blue. Voted the greatest European player of the last 50 years by thousands of fans across the continent, his presence will make Les Bleus a team opposing fans can relish beating… or console themselves with losing to.
But it is still hard to under-state what he means in his native country. Admired for his humility as much as for his sporting genius, he has been held up as a role model for kids from all backgrounds, and his Algerian heritage turned him into the poster-boy for racial integration many moons ago. Indeed, every aspect of his being seems to have been dissected, approved, injected into the national psyche and appropriated for some agenda or other.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has often been a heavy load for one man to carry, and Zidane returns to the France set-up with a deep-seated desire to rewind the clock. Not even to July 12 1998 and his two headed goals against Brazil that sealed France's first World Cup trophy. Before that. A long time before that. "I want to remember how it felt when I took my first steps in the professional game. When I was nobody, when no one knew me and I was left alone to learn my trade and grow," he explained after announcing his volte-face. "In the last few months, I've lost my football and I've lost myself with it. I swear, there have been times when I haven't even been able to recognise myself anymore."
The pure joy of playing football for football's sake was something the young Zinedine first found on the streets of La Castellane, a rundown North-African enclave in the bustling port city of Marseille. Discovering his innate gift, he joined local side Saint-Henri, but it was with his next club Septèmes-les-Vallons that things started happening. "I knew straight away that this lad was going to be one of the greats," says Jean Varraud, the scout for AS Cannes who spotted Zidane in action at the age of 13. "He had exceptional speed and that warrior spirit kids from poor neighbourhoods have. He was hungry!"
The south-coast outfit snapped him up in a heartbeat, and the shy, unassuming teenager blazed through the ranks before then-Coach Jean Fernandez handed him his Ligue 1 debut as a 16-year-old on May 20 1989. Currently in charge of Zidane's hometown club Olympique de Marseille, Fernandez has remained one of his greatest fans ever since: "It's like he's got hands for feet, and he plays and thinks a lot quicker than anyone else. Before he gets the ball, he analyses the situation and knows what to do in an instant. It's like he gets a flash of inspiration, and he makes the right pass at breathtaking speed. Michel Platini was like that too."
Today, Marseille's fanatical fans are obsessed with the idea of the prodigal son returning home, but, although it remains an outside chance, their team famously turned down the opportunity to bring him on board in 1992. Instead, he joined Bordeaux, where he was reunited with his great friend from the France U-16 side, Christophe Dugarry – the man behind the 'Zizou' tag. Four stellar years with the Girondins culminated in a terrific run to the UEFA Cup final, only for Bayern Munich to prove too strong at the last hurdle, but Zidane had left his mark and was soon following in Platini's footsteps as he signed for Juventus.
For all his bedevilling talent, though, the shock to his system was immediate. Gianpiero Ventrone's fierce training regime pushed him to the limits, yet he emerged as the complete player, adding muscle and strength to his ball control and vision. After two seasons in Serie A, he was ready for his finest hour at the Stade de France on a hot summer's day, and his brutal match-winning headers spoke volumes of his hunger to master all aspects of the game, ugly and beautiful.
Unfortunately, the ugly has been very ugly at times, and earlier in the same tournament Zidane was sent off for stamping on a Saudi Arabian opponent. Indeed, it is staggering to think that a man renowned for such easy brilliance finished the 2005-06 campaign with as many red cards as Vinnie Jones picked up in his entire career.
But if his bursts of ill-tempered petulance – and, on occasion, malice – have not stuck in the collective memory, it is because Zidane has so consistently jammed our brains with images of genius that we even have trouble recalling some of the highlights. And it is a habit of his that dates right back to his international debut in 1994, when he came on as a substitute with France trailing Czechoslovakia 2-0. Two goals in the last five minutes made it a night to remember – except that it has been largely forgotten.
What can any of us do, though? This is the man who scored the first ever goal at the Stade de France, and the man whose ice-cool sudden-death penalty against Portugal sent France through to the final of Euro 2000, which they naturally went on to win. Inevitably, it was also his boot guiding in the volley that won Real Madrid the 2002 Champions' League final at Bayer Leverkusen's expense, after he had become a galactico and the world's most expensive player in 2001. And which Englishman will ever banish the painful memory of Zidane's two stoppage-time goals at Euro 2004?
There have, of course, been failures along the way, and having suffered a car accident days before Euro '96, his influence was limited as France were knocked out in the semi-finals. Likewise, he missed the first two matches of World Cup 2002 through injury and had to watch as France flirted with elimination. "Everything will be alright as soon as Zidane comes back," declared the country's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the time. Everything was not alright, though, and their convalescent talisman was unable to prevent a humiliating loss to Denmark that had Les Bleus packing their bags in shame.
Fast forward to 2005 and the landscape looks eerily similar. France could very realistically miss out on qualification for Germany 2006, but Zidane's return has lifted the mood of the entire nation. The spectre of old age has replaced that of injury, however, and there is a huge question mark hanging over how many more matches he can swing as he enters his mid-30s. Everything will be alright as soon as Zidane comes back? The man himself has dismissed such talk out of hand, but it's hard to imagine anything more reassuringly familiar.
Words: Chris Burke
http://www.channel4.com/sport/french_football/interviews/zidane.html
"God is back!" enthused no less a footballing divinity than Thierry Henry when the news broke that Zinedine Zidane intended to slip on his old France shirt. It was the ultimate feelgood moment for French supporters, bringing with it the possibility of renewed success while, paradoxically, making any future disappointments easier to bear - because Les Bleus make sense again, the sums all add up and if Zizou can't get it done, well, perhaps it just isn't meant to be.
In a sense, though, the three-time World Player of the Year was never gone. Incessant chants of 'Zizou Zizou' plagued Raymond Domenech's new-look side in the wake of the great man's international retirement in August 2004, and the songs are unlikely to change now. Neither is it uniquely the French who will be delighted to see him back in blue. Voted the greatest European player of the last 50 years by thousands of fans across the continent, his presence will make Les Bleus a team opposing fans can relish beating… or console themselves with losing to.
But it is still hard to under-state what he means in his native country. Admired for his humility as much as for his sporting genius, he has been held up as a role model for kids from all backgrounds, and his Algerian heritage turned him into the poster-boy for racial integration many moons ago. Indeed, every aspect of his being seems to have been dissected, approved, injected into the national psyche and appropriated for some agenda or other.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has often been a heavy load for one man to carry, and Zidane returns to the France set-up with a deep-seated desire to rewind the clock. Not even to July 12 1998 and his two headed goals against Brazil that sealed France's first World Cup trophy. Before that. A long time before that. "I want to remember how it felt when I took my first steps in the professional game. When I was nobody, when no one knew me and I was left alone to learn my trade and grow," he explained after announcing his volte-face. "In the last few months, I've lost my football and I've lost myself with it. I swear, there have been times when I haven't even been able to recognise myself anymore."
The pure joy of playing football for football's sake was something the young Zinedine first found on the streets of La Castellane, a rundown North-African enclave in the bustling port city of Marseille. Discovering his innate gift, he joined local side Saint-Henri, but it was with his next club Septèmes-les-Vallons that things started happening. "I knew straight away that this lad was going to be one of the greats," says Jean Varraud, the scout for AS Cannes who spotted Zidane in action at the age of 13. "He had exceptional speed and that warrior spirit kids from poor neighbourhoods have. He was hungry!"
The south-coast outfit snapped him up in a heartbeat, and the shy, unassuming teenager blazed through the ranks before then-Coach Jean Fernandez handed him his Ligue 1 debut as a 16-year-old on May 20 1989. Currently in charge of Zidane's hometown club Olympique de Marseille, Fernandez has remained one of his greatest fans ever since: "It's like he's got hands for feet, and he plays and thinks a lot quicker than anyone else. Before he gets the ball, he analyses the situation and knows what to do in an instant. It's like he gets a flash of inspiration, and he makes the right pass at breathtaking speed. Michel Platini was like that too."
Today, Marseille's fanatical fans are obsessed with the idea of the prodigal son returning home, but, although it remains an outside chance, their team famously turned down the opportunity to bring him on board in 1992. Instead, he joined Bordeaux, where he was reunited with his great friend from the France U-16 side, Christophe Dugarry – the man behind the 'Zizou' tag. Four stellar years with the Girondins culminated in a terrific run to the UEFA Cup final, only for Bayern Munich to prove too strong at the last hurdle, but Zidane had left his mark and was soon following in Platini's footsteps as he signed for Juventus.
For all his bedevilling talent, though, the shock to his system was immediate. Gianpiero Ventrone's fierce training regime pushed him to the limits, yet he emerged as the complete player, adding muscle and strength to his ball control and vision. After two seasons in Serie A, he was ready for his finest hour at the Stade de France on a hot summer's day, and his brutal match-winning headers spoke volumes of his hunger to master all aspects of the game, ugly and beautiful.
Unfortunately, the ugly has been very ugly at times, and earlier in the same tournament Zidane was sent off for stamping on a Saudi Arabian opponent. Indeed, it is staggering to think that a man renowned for such easy brilliance finished the 2005-06 campaign with as many red cards as Vinnie Jones picked up in his entire career.
But if his bursts of ill-tempered petulance – and, on occasion, malice – have not stuck in the collective memory, it is because Zidane has so consistently jammed our brains with images of genius that we even have trouble recalling some of the highlights. And it is a habit of his that dates right back to his international debut in 1994, when he came on as a substitute with France trailing Czechoslovakia 2-0. Two goals in the last five minutes made it a night to remember – except that it has been largely forgotten.
What can any of us do, though? This is the man who scored the first ever goal at the Stade de France, and the man whose ice-cool sudden-death penalty against Portugal sent France through to the final of Euro 2000, which they naturally went on to win. Inevitably, it was also his boot guiding in the volley that won Real Madrid the 2002 Champions' League final at Bayer Leverkusen's expense, after he had become a galactico and the world's most expensive player in 2001. And which Englishman will ever banish the painful memory of Zidane's two stoppage-time goals at Euro 2004?
There have, of course, been failures along the way, and having suffered a car accident days before Euro '96, his influence was limited as France were knocked out in the semi-finals. Likewise, he missed the first two matches of World Cup 2002 through injury and had to watch as France flirted with elimination. "Everything will be alright as soon as Zidane comes back," declared the country's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at the time. Everything was not alright, though, and their convalescent talisman was unable to prevent a humiliating loss to Denmark that had Les Bleus packing their bags in shame.
Fast forward to 2005 and the landscape looks eerily similar. France could very realistically miss out on qualification for Germany 2006, but Zidane's return has lifted the mood of the entire nation. The spectre of old age has replaced that of injury, however, and there is a huge question mark hanging over how many more matches he can swing as he enters his mid-30s. Everything will be alright as soon as Zidane comes back? The man himself has dismissed such talk out of hand, but it's hard to imagine anything more reassuringly familiar.
Words: Chris Burke
http://www.channel4.com/sport/french_football/interviews/zidane.html