Zidane Makes the French Connection

Zin

edine Xidane got off to a bumpy start for Real Madrid last year after his record $68.6 million transfer from Juventus. Amateur football accountants quickly began to suggest that the price paid for the French midfielder had been a mistake.

They could be right—Zidane might be worth even more. Let's audit his account: World Cup Champion, European Champion, Serie A champion (twice), and now Champions League winner. He's been a finalist two other times in the Champions League and once in the UEFA Cup. "Zizou" has lost more big games than most footballers ever get a chance to play.

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And, win or lose, his ability to bend a game in his favor the way he bends the ball around defenders has made this two-time FIFA Footballer of the Year indispensable to the French national team. Without Zidane, according to the sports journal L'Equipe, there would be no defending the title that France tore from Brazil in 1998. That's why fans of Les Bleus suffer such anxiety whenever he is injured or sent off. The chance that he might be red-carded is ever present: he sat out five games in Spain's La Liga this year after head-butting an opponent.

Uncouth perhaps, but the balding Zidane has never been described as particularly elegant or stylish. He was born in a poor banlieue near Marseille, the fifth child of Algerian immigrants. On the pitch, he seems just a little top-heavy, and he moves at unorthodox and confounding angles. But he can also shake off defenders at his back by spinning 360° with the ball perched on a shoe top, effortlessly positioning himself to make a perfectly weighted pass where none seemed possible. During this World Cup, unlike the last, he has someone to kick to. France is loaded with goal-scoring threats in Thierry Henry, David Trézéguet, Sylvain Wiltord and Djibril Cisse. "I'm beginning to be frightened by all those great strikers. It gives a lot of responsibility to the man who does all the passing for France," Zidane has said.

Zidane's own strikes don't come frequently—that's been one of the knocks on him—but he has shown a remarkable knack for finding the goal in crucial matches—as he did with two headers in the last cup final against Brazil, including one in which he nearly knocked his marker Dunga into the net along with the ball. And his spectacular winning goal last week against Bayer Leverkusen cemented his reputation as an all but priceless player.