Zinedine Yazid Zidane, popularly known as Zizou, was born June 23, 1972. Zidane is a former French professional football player who played as an attacking midfielder. Zidane was an elite playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, ball control, and technique.
Zidane started his career at Cannes before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Division 1 at Bordeaux. In 1996, he moved to Juventus where he won trophies including two Seria A titles which earned him a world record fee transfer to Real Madrid at the time of 77.5 million euros in 2001 which remained unmatched for the next eight years.
In Spain, Zidane won several trophies including a La Liga title and the UEFA Champions league. In the 2002 UEFA Champions Final, he scored a left-foot volleyed winner, which is considered to be one of the greatest goals in the competition’s history.
Zidane capped the France national football team 108 times, he won the 1998 FIFA world Cup, scoring twice in the final and was named to the All-Star Team. This triumph made him a national hero in France, and he received numerous awards in France.
Zizou as he is popularly called, he is currently the manager of a La liga Club Real Madrid and he is one of the most successful managers in the world. He received many accolades individually as a player, including being named FIFA World Player of the Year 1998, 2000, 2003, and winning the 1998 Ballon d’Or.
After retiring as a player, Zidane transitioned into coaching, and began his head coaching career at Real Madrid Castilla. He remained in the position for two years before taking the helm of the first team in 2016. In his initial two and a half seasons, Zidane became the first coach to win the Champions League three times consecutively, won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup twice each, as well as a La Liga title and a Supercopa de España.
This success led to Zidane being named Best FIFA Men’s Coach in 2017. He resigned in 2018, but returned to the club as manager in 2019, and proceeded to win another La Liga and Supercopa de España title.
Zidane is one of eight players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d’Or.
Zizou is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
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Agbelusi Samuel is a campus journalist, writer, red carpet host, political and sport analyst. A political science student that covers news and politics beats for AAUA INSIDER.