Zinedine Zidane is a former French soccer player

Born in 1972, Zinedine Zidane is a former French soccer player well known for scooping all of the game’s biggest prizes. He is widely considered to be one of the all time greatest players on Earth. Zidane is a living legend! He won many personal awards for his skills but also cast doubt on those around him because of his temperament. Despite that he is an admired man and a player of supreme genius. Zidane began his professional club career with Cannes in 1988. Four years later he joined Bordeaux appearing for them 139 times and scoring 28 goals. Zidane by now was grabbing the attention of the great clubs in Europe with his excellent potential. He joined Juventus for 3.2 million pounds in 1996 and helped them win the Italian Serie A league title and Intercontinental Cup in his first season. In 1998 Zidane scored seven goals in 32 matches as Juventus retained the Serie A title and was also voted Serie A footballer of the year in 2001. Zidane also took Juventus to the European Cup final where ultimately Real Madrid won but Zidane would carry his goal scoring exploits to the 1998 World Cup staged in France. There Zidane played the vital role of his life for France in the last three games of the tournament. He made it to the final for the first time and scored with two glorious headers against Brazil in a 3-0 win that made France’s dream come true of winning the World Cup. To cap it all he was voted European Footballer of the Year winning the Golden Ball award in 1998. Zidane’s next international success with France was at the 2000 European Championships in Holland. There he scored the winning penalty kick to take France to the Final against Italy that was decided in over-time thanks to a ‘golden goal’. Zidane was therefore fortunate to collect his second major prize.




In 2001 Zidane having played 151 matches for Juventus and scored 24 goals transferred to Real Madrid for a fee of 78 million Euros. He inspired Real to the European Cup scoring with a memorable volley against Bayer Leverkusen of Germany in Glasgow. It was a goal good enough to win the trophy. Zidane was soon voted Europe’s top player in a UEFA poll on the occasion of its golden jubilee in 2004. Zidane played for France as team captain one last time at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. There he scored again from a penalty in the semi-finals to take France back to the Final after an eight-year absence. In the final Zidane scored from another penalty to become the first Frenchman to score in two separate World Cup finals. Sadly before the game was up he bizarrely head-butted an Italian player and was sent off and without him France lost on penalties!




Zidane ultimately retired from soccer in 2006. He had collected 108 caps for France scoring 31 times for them. He also had the honor of winning the FIFA World Player of the Year Award in 1998, 2000 and 2003. He currently serves as advisor to Real Madrid President Florentino Perez.