Zinedine Zidane

Zinédine Yazid Zidane (Arabic: زين الدين يزيد زيدان, born June 23, 1972, in Marseille, France), nicknamed Zizou, is a football player for Real Madrid and formerly France. He is a Muslim of Algerian Kabyle Berber ethnic origin. Through his status as a prominent Frenchman of Maghrebi descent, he promotes racial and religious tolerance, especially among the youth.

Zidane was a member of the French football team in the , which France won, scoring two goals in the final against Brazil. Two years later, he led his country to a second major championship, winning . He has been elected three times as FIFA World Player of the Year (1998, 2000, 2003). Zidane is often considered to be the best footballer in the world, and perhaps one of the most talented players of all time. An elegant dribbler of the ball, Zidane's passing ability and perfect balance make him one of the best playmakers in the world and the natural successor of France's Michel Platini.

In 2001 Zidane transferred from Italian team Juventus to Spanish club side Real Madrid on a four-year contract. The transfer fee was US$64.45 million, making him the most expensive player in football history. While Zidane initially took a while to settle in among the superstars of Madrid, the season culminated in him helping Madrid and scoring the winning goal with a fantastic volley in a 2-1 win over the German team Bayer Leverkusen in the 2001-2002 Champions League Final.

Injuries prevented him from reprising his 1998 performance in the 2002 World Cup. France's defence of their trophy was one of the most unsuccessful in World Cup history, the team being eliminated in the First Round without scoring a single goal.

Zidane is well-liked in France, and is known to be a modest, quiet, even to the point of being shy, footballer. He is married to a French woman of Spanish descent and has three children. As a Guardian feature article says, however, Zidane has also occasional flashes of aggression on the pitch.

In 2004, Zidane was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations. In 2004, he was also voted the best European player for the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

He was an Athens 2004 Torchbearer. On August 12, 2004 Zidane retired from international football. He announced on February 4 2005 that he would retire from the game at the end of his current contract with Real Madrid, at the end of the 2006/07 season.

In an interview he declared that when he was a teenager, Zidane admired Olympique de Marseille's Uruguayan striker Enzo Francescoli. He once was a ballboy at a match with Francescoli and thus saw him up close.