Zizou or Zeus

Zinedine Zidane, was born to Smail and Malika Zidane on June 23rd., 1972, in Northern Marseille. He was the youngest of five siblings. Zizou, as he later became known, was one of the greatest footballers to ever grace the pitch. He was a very elegant dribbler and, if not careful, he could undress the best of players with a few imaginative touches, followed by his athletic acceleration. His resources seemed limitless while handling the ball. He was the most feared opponent of his time. It's no surprise he has been likened to Zeus.*

  - I was lucky to come from a difficult area. It teaches you not just about football but also life. There was lots of kids from different races and poor families. People had to struggle to get through the day.  

Zizou, began crafting his silk at age five when he joined in games with other neighbourhood  kids from the Northern Marseille area, a place known for it's poverty, high crime and unemployment rates. There he played long hours on the Place Tartane, a small eighty by twelve yard plaza, the housing complex's main square. His idols where Blaz Sliskovic, Enzo Francescoli, and Jean-Pierre Papin. At age ten he joined a local club (US Saint-Henri) and played there for one and a half years. Next he moved to, SO Septemes Valons. At age fourteen Zidane was invited to attend a three-day training camp at the Regional Centre for Sports and Physical Education in Aix-en-Provence. While here scout Jean Varraud (AS Cannes) took notice of his abilities and kick-started his illustrious  professional career. At age fourteen Zizou was away from home and playing for AS Cannes, then off to Bordeaux, Juventus, and finally Real Madrid, where he ended his professional career in 2006.

My intent here is not to focus on his pro career accomplishments or even his international accomplishments. With a simple search one can find his remarkable records. I rather muse over the man himself and his talent. If I can coin a term to sum up my admiration for Zizou, it would be that he was, 'poetry in motion'.  He was a thing of beauty, and he was unique. As an attacking mid-fielder he crafted, and controlled  entire matches, such was his ability.

   - I'm very inspired by him - it was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.

Zizou was a hard worker, and many admired him for his fitness regime. In fact, upon arriving at Real Madrid, Kaka modelled his own fitness training after Zidane's. As an attacking mid-fielder Zidane possessed a large arsenal of skills; dribbling, tactical dribble, play making, passing, penalties, 1-touch pass, outside pass/curve shot. His life time short and long passing average was around 90%, just what you want from your mid-field. His dribbling was quite elegant, and hard to read giving him a reputation of being a trickster. Over all, Zizou's technical ability was mindboggling. It's no wonder fans voted him best European player of the previous fifty years in UEFA's fiftieth-anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll. 

Today this shy, humble, footballer is Adviser to the President (Florentino Perez) of Real Madrid, involved in making key sporting decisions for the club. He is married with four boys. 


* Zeus (Derek J. Moore-The Press Democrat), http://pesstatsdatabase.com/viewtopic.php?f=186&t=3496&start=140   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinedine_Zidane  http://zidanefans.livejournal.com/?skip=10