Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Yazid Zidane nickname, abadowii zuluzama,born 23 June 1972 in Marseille), popularly nicknamed Zizou, is a French former football midfielder. He was a member of the French national team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000, as well as being the recipient of the Golden Ball after he captained the French side to the 2006 World Cup final.

He played for four European clubs, and won the 2002 UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid. One of only two three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winners (Ronaldo being the other), he was also named European Footballer of the Year in 1998. In 2004, fans voted him atop UEFA's fiftieth-anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll, and he was included in Pelé's FIFA 100.

Zidane retired from professional football after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

International career
Zidane holds dual citizenship in both France and Algeria, and therefore was eligible to play for the Algerian national team, but coach Abdelhamid Kermali allegedly denied him a position because he felt the young midfielder was not fast enough. Zidane dismissed the rumour in a 2005 interview, saying that playing for Algeria was out of the question since he had already suited up for France.

He earned his first cap with France after coming on as a substitute in the 63rd minute of a friendly against the Czech Republic on 17 August 1994. The match ended in a 2-2 draw after Zidane scored twice to help France erase a 2-0 deficit. At that time, manager Aimé Jacquet had planned to position the team's formation around Manchester United star Eric Cantona, but after Cantona was handed a year-long suspension in January 1995 after assaulting a fan, Jacquet re-arranged the team and positioned Zidane as playmaker. Despite criticism from fans and pundits regarding the choice of players, France made it to the Euro 1996 semifinals, where France were eliminated in a penalty shootout by the Czech Republic after the match ended 0-0 in extra time.

2000 European Championship
idane helped his team reach the Euro 2000 final with inspired play and important goals. He scored a direct free kick in the quarter-final against Spain, along with a controversial golden goal penalty in the semi-finals against Portugal. France went on to defeat Italy in the final, thus becoming the first team to hold both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany in 1974 . Subsequently, France were ranked first in the world by FIFA.


Injuries, retirement, and comeback (2002–2006)
A thigh injury prevented Zidane from playing in France's first two matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He 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.

Going into Euro 2004 as defending champions and heavy favourites, Zidane and his team started strongly as he scored a free kick and penalty in injury-time to defeat England 2-1 in the group stage. On 12 June 2004, after France were eliminated by eventual surprise winners Greece 1-0 in the quarter-finals, Zidane retired from international football. However, prompted by manager Raymond Domenech and seeing France struggle to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, Zidane announced on 3 August 2005 that he was coming out of retirement. He was immediately reinstated as team captain. He made his competitive return in a 3-0 win over the Faroe Islands on 3 September 2005, as France went on to win their qualifying group. However, on 25 April 2006, after an injury-plagued season at Real Madrid, Zidane announced that he would retire from professional football altogether after the 2006 World Cup.

On 27 May 2006, Zidane earned his 100th cap for France in a 1-0 friendly win over Mexico at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. It was his last match in the stadium, and he became the fourth player in the history of French football to earn 100 caps, after Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Lilian Thuram. He was substituted early in the second half.