Will ZZ Top It All Before Signing Off?
It’s with great sadness (firstly that I put another pun-tastic headline on this post but more importantly) that I have to write about one of the greatest footballers of my lifetime announcing his retirement.
Zinedine Zidane has confirmed the rumours that he will retire altogether after leading France into battle at World Cup 2006 despite still having a year to run on his Real Madrid contract. The passing of time and the cumulative damage of injuries in recent seasons have forced the French wizard’s hand and I’m sure the news of his retirement will bring a tear to football fans’ eyes in more places than Madrid and his home country.
One of the true masters and undoubtedly the best player in the world for much of the late 1990s, Zidane was an artist with the ball at his feet and allied with a strength and footballing brain that more than made up for his reputed lack of traditional speed, he dominated the European and world game for Juventus, Real Madrid and France.
Scoring twice in the World Cup Final in 1998 in Paris would obviously be classed as his crowning performance and to lead his country on to European Championship glory two years later was the icing on the cake. He hasn’t looked to be the same player over the last couple of years as the injuries have robbed his body even though his mind is still more than a match for the best defences in the world.
Enjoy these clips of the great man in action and ask yourself just how former Spurs manager Gerry Francis could have looked at a young Zidane while at Auxerre and turned him down for a trial because he looked “too wooden”. Oh, to have been such a wooden footballer myself…
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