Zinedine Zidane

About the Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (French: Zinedine Yazid Zidane; Kabyle: Zineddin Lyazid Zidan; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached La Liga club Real Madrid and is one of the most successful coaches in the world. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, and ball control. He 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.

Zidane started his career at Cannes, before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Ligue 1 at Bordeaux. In 1996, he moved to Italian club Juventus, where he won several trophies, including two Serie A titles. He moved to Real Madrid for a world record fee at the time of EUR77.5 million in 2001, which remained a record for the next eight years. In Spain, Zidane won several trophies, including a La Liga title and the UEFA Champions League. In the 2002 Champions League final, he scored a left-foot volleyed winner that is considered one of the greatest goals in football history.

Capped 108 times by France, Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring a brace in the final, and was named in the All-Star team. This triumph made him a national hero in France and he received the Legion of Honour in 1998. He won UEFA Euro 2000 and was named Player of the Tournament. He also 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. He retired as the fourth-most capped player in French history.

In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world’s greatest living players compiled by Pele, and in the same year was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. Zidane is one of nine players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d’Or. He was the ambassador for Qatar’s successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, the first Arab country to host the tournament.

After retiring as a player, Zidane began his coaching career at Real Madrid Castilla. He remained in the position for two years, before managing the first team in 2016. In his initial three seasons, Zidane became the first coach to win the Champions League three times in a row. He also won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup twice each, as well as a La Liga title and a Supercopa de Espana. This success led to Zidane being named Best FIFA Men’s Coach in 2017. He resigned in 2018, but returned to the club in 2019, and won another La Liga title and a Supercopa de Espana, before leaving again in 2021.