Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, ball control, and technique.
85 Facts About Zinedine Zidane
2.
Zinedine Zidane received many individual accolades as a player, including being named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998,2000 and 2003, and winning the 1998 Ballon d'Or.
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Zinedine Zidane started his career at Cannes before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Ligue 1 at Bordeaux.
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In Spain, Zinedine Zidane won several trophies, including a La Liga title and the UEFA Champions League.
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Zinedine Zidane won UEFA Euro 2000 and was named Player of the Tournament.
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Zinedine Zidane received the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup, despite his infamous sending off in the final against Italy for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest.
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Zinedine Zidane retired as the fourth-most capped player in French history.
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Zinedine Zidane is one of nine players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or.
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Zinedine Zidane was the ambassador for Qatar's successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, the first Arab country to host the tournament.
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Zinedine Zidane remained in the position for two years before taking the helm of the first team in 2016.
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Zinedine Zidane resigned in 2018, but returned to the club in 2019 and won another La Liga and a Supercopa de Espana title before leaving again in 2021.
12.
Zinedine Yazid Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in La Castellane, Marseille, in Southern France.
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Zinedine Zidane is of Algerian Kabyle descent and has described himself as a "non-practising Muslim".
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Zinedine Zidane's father worked as a warehouseman and security guard at a department store, often on the night shift, while his mother was a housewife.
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In July 2011, Zinedine Zidane named former Marseille players Blaz Sliskovic, Enzo Francescoli and Jean-Pierre Papin as his idols while growing up.
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At the age of ten, Zinedine Zidane got his first player's licence after joining the junior team of a local club from Castellane by the name of US Saint-Henri.
17.
Zinedine Zidane stayed with Septemes until the age of 14, at which time he was selected to attend a three-day training camp at the CREPS in Aix-en-Provence, one of several such footballing institutes run by the French Football Federation.
18.
Zinedine Zidane went to AS Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level.
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Zinedine Zidane later said that while living with the Elineaus he found equilibrium.
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Zinedine Zidane spent his first weeks at Cannes mainly on cleaning duty as a punishment for punching an opponent who mocked his ghetto origins.
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Zinedine Zidane made his professional debut with Cannes on 18 May 1989 in a French Division 1 match against Nantes.
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Zinedine Zidane played a set of midfield combinations with Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become the trademark of both Bordeaux and the 1998 French national team.
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In 1996, Zinedine Zidane received the award for Ligue 1 Player of the Year.
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Zinedine Zidane was named Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year in his first season.
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Zinedine Zidane had a unique ability to be a great and to be a team player.
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In 1998, Zinedine Zidane was named FIFA World Player of the Year, and won the Ballon d'Or.
27.
In 2001, Zinedine Zidane was named Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year for the second time.
28.
The magnitude of the strike saw Zinedine Zidane produce one of his most emotional goal celebrations as he ran towards the touchline with mouth wide open, screaming in delight.
29.
Zinedine Zidane was Bruce Lee in slow motion while kung-fu chaos reigned around.
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Zinedine Zidane ended the season for Real Madrid as their second highest goalscorer and assists provider behind teammates Ronaldo and David Beckham respectively, with nine goals and ten assists in 28 games.
31.
However, Zinedine Zidane dismissed the rumour in a 2005 interview, saying that he would have been ineligible to play for Algeria because he had already played for France.
32.
Zinedine Zidane was a member of the French under-21 squad that won a bronze medal at the 1993 Mediterranean Games in Languedoc-Roussillon.
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Zinedine Zidane was not yet fully established in the French team and his level was quite average during the whole event, but he managed to score in the penalty shootout in both the quarter-final and semi-final.
34.
The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup that Zinedine Zidane participated in; the tournament was held in his home country, France.
35.
The French team won all three games in the group stage, with Zinedine Zidane setting up Christophe Dugarry's goal in the opening match against South Africa from a corner, and contributing to Thierry Henry's opening goal in the second match against Saudi Arabia; however, Zinedine Zidane was sent off in the latter match for a stamp on Fuad Anwar, becoming the first French player to receive a red card in a World Cup Finals match.
36.
France dominated Brazil from the kick-off, with Zinedine Zidane scoring two similar goals, both headers from corner kicks taken by Emmanuel Petit and Youri Djorkaeff.
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Zinedine Zidane finished with two goals, a bending free kick against Spain in the quarter-final and the golden goal in the semi-final against Portugal with a penalty.
38.
Zinedine Zidane was rushed back prematurely for the third game despite not being fully fit, but could not prevent France from being ignominiously eliminated in the group stage without scoring a single goal; the worst performance by a defending champion in the history of the competition.
39.
At the urging of coach Raymond Domenech, Zinedine Zidane came out of retirement and was immediately reinstated as team captain.
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Zinedine Zidane became France's fourth player to reach 100 caps, after Desailly, Thuram and Didier Deschamps.
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France had a slow start to the 2006 Finals and, after being suspended for the third match of the group stage, Zinedine Zidane returned to set up a goal for Patrick Vieira and score one himself in the second round match against Spain.
42.
Zinedine Zidane assisted Thierry Henry's deciding goal and was named Man of the Match by FIFA.
43.
Seven minutes into the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin, Zinedine Zidane put France ahead with a Panenka-style penalty kick which struck the crossbar and bounced just over the goal line to become only the fourth player in World Cup history to score in two different finals, along with Pele, Paul Breitner, and Vava, in addition to being tied for first place with Vava, Pele and Geoff Hurst with three World Cup final goals apiece.
44.
Zinedine Zidane almost scored a second goal during the first period of extra time but his header was saved by Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
45.
Zinedine Zidane became the fourth player red-carded in a World Cup final, in addition to being the first sent off in extra time.
46.
The day after the final, Zinedine Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament.
47.
In 2010, Zinedine Zidane said that he would "rather die than apologize" to Materazzi for the headbutt in the final, but admitted that he "could never have lived with himself" had he been allowed to remain on the pitch and help France win the match.
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Zinedine Zidane was sentenced by FIFA to a three-match suspension for the red card.
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Zinedine Zidane agreed to complete three days of community service with children in one of FIFA's humanitarian projects.
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Zinedine Zidane ended up tying with Brazil's Cafu for the record for most cards given in World Cup matches, with six.
51.
On 1 June 2009, Zinedine Zidane was announced as the advisor to the president after Florentino Perez was named president of Real Madrid for the second time.
52.
Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid committee announced in September 2010 that Zinedine Zidane had been appointed as an ambassador for Qatar's attempt to host the 2022 World Cup.
53.
In June and July 2009, Zinedine Zidane toured across Canada with stops in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
54.
On 6 June 2010, Zinedine Zidane took part in the biennial charity event Soccer Aid.
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Zinedine Zidane played for the Rest of the World team, managed by former Liverpool and Celtic forward Kenny Dalglish against England alongside former Real Madrid teammate Luis Figo and Celtic legend Henrik Larsson.
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Zinedine Zidane played against former players such as Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearer, as well as celebrities such as Hollywood actors Woody Harrelson, Mike Myers, Michael Sheen, chef Gordon Ramsay, actor Damian Lewis and singer Robbie Williams.
57.
On 2 June 2013, Zinedine Zidane took part in a charity match played at Old Trafford as part of the Manchester United Legends vs Real Madrid Legends reverse fixture.
58.
The 12th Match against Poverty took place in Saint-Etienne, France, on Monday 20 April 2015, where Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane teamed up with other football stars against past and present players of French Ligue 1 club AS Saint-Etienne.
59.
In November 2010, Zinedine Zidane was appointed as a special adviser to Real Madrid's first team in response to an appeal made by then-Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho for the former Real midfielder to work more closely with the team.
60.
In 2013, Zinedine Zidane was appointed assistant coach to Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid.
61.
In June 2014, Real Madrid announced that Zinedine Zidane would be the coach of Real Madrid's B team, Real Madrid Castilla.
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The truth is the exact opposite: Zinedine Zidane is acting as Real Madrid Castilla's head coach, while, with all due respect to him as a colleague, Mr Sanchez's role basically boils down to providing the badges.
63.
On 4 January 2016, Real Madrid announced the dismissal of Rafael Benitez and on the same day Zinedine Zidane was appointed the new head coach of the club on a two-and-a-half-year deal.
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Zinedine Zidane became the seventh man to win the European Cup both as a player and a coach and the second man to achieve the feat with Real Madrid.
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Zinedine Zidane became the first French coach, except the French-Argentinian Helenio Herrera, to win the trophy.
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Zinedine Zidane's success saw him named Best FIFA Men's Coach in 2017.
67.
On 12 January 2020, Zinedine Zidane guided Madrid to their first trophy in his second spell, with the club defeating cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid in a penalty shootout in the Supercopa de Espana final.
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Zinedine Zidane left a second time on 27 May 2021 after going trophyless that season.
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When Zinedine Zidane stepped onto the pitch, the ten other guys just got suddenly better.
70.
Zinedine Zidane had such elegance and grace, a wonderful touch and superb vision.
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Zinedine Zidane was capable of using either foot, despite being naturally right-footed.
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Zinedine Zidane's technique and co-ordination enabled him to execute shots and volleys with extreme power and precision, in particular from outside the penalty area; he was a free kick and penalty kick specialist.
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Zinedine Zidane was capable of playing as a second striker, or in a more withdrawn role in midfield, either as a central midfielder or deep-lying playmaker, due to his ability to orchestrate his team's attacking plays from deep with his vision and passing.
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Zinedine Zidane drew praise from his managers for his defensive work-rate.
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Zinedine Zidane had excellent positional sense and outstanding spatial awareness.
76.
Zinedine Zidane has been named FIFA World Player of the Year three times, a feat achieved only by Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
77.
In 2014, in a poll carried out by French TV channel TF1, Zinedine Zidane was voted as the best player in the history of the French league.
78.
In 2016, in a study led by French newspaper Le Parisien, Zinedine Zidane was named "best French player of all time".
79.
Zinedine Zidane emphasised the importance of players' physical levels and preferred to choose impactful players over a defined system.
80.
Zinedine Zidane has had endorsements with many companies, including Adidas, Lego, France Telecom, Orange, Audi, Volvic and Christian Dior.
81.
In May 2010, Zinedine Zidane appeared in a commercial for Louis Vuitton, indulging in a game of table football with Pele and Diego Maradona.
82.
In November 2006, Zinedine Zidane toured Bangladesh as the guest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
83.
Zinedine Zidane visited the Algerian birthplace of his parents and met with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who gave him an official reception.
84.
On 5 November 2006, Zinedine Zidane appeared in the American animated sitcom Family Guy, seen headbutting an old lady in the episode "Saving Private Brian" as a parody of his headbutt on Materazzi.
85.
In 2010, footage of Zinedine Zidane appeared in the "Waka Waka" music video by Shakira, which shows him celebrating France winning the 1998 World Cup.