I used to agree with all these guys quoted below but now I've seen that clip I've changed my mindOriginally Posted by J R Hartley
“He played like a ‘general’ in midfield. He has technique, tricks, passing and also has an ability to score some of the best goals.” — Marco van Basten
“Playing alongside Zidane is like dancing next to Fred Astaire.” — Clive Tyldesley
While we’re on the topic of Clive Tyldesley, please watch this short video of him commenting on Zidane’s mythical performance for France against Brazil in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup.
“Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player.” — Franz Beckenbauer
“When Zidane stepped onto the pitch, the 10 other guys just got suddenly better. It is that simple. It was magic. He was a unique player. He was more than good, he came from another planet. His team-mates became like him when he was on the pitch.” — Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Thousands have gushed over Zidane's frightening vision on the pitch. Vision that was facilitated by his peerless technique and command of space.
Thousands have gushed over Zidane’s frightening vision on the pitch. Vision that was facilitated by his peerless technique and command of space.
“I don’t think my players would be too upset if I mentioned that I’d like Zidane in our side” . . . “You look at Zidane and think ‘I’ve never seen a player quite like that’. Diego Maradona was a great player. Johan Cruyff was a great player. They were different – but with similarities. What sets Zidane apart is the way he manipulates a football, buying himself space that isn’t there. Add his vision and it makes him very special.” — Kevin Keegan
“He leads the orchestra. But he’s also willing to work – and a dead-ball specialist. That makes him a pretty good player in my book.” — Kevin Keegan
” . . . the most elegant footballer I have ever seen” — Gary Lineker
” . . . Zidane is the leader. He brings a light to the game with his passing and his movement and his skill. And thereby [ . . . ] he commands it.” — Gerard Houllier (quoted from Simon Kuper’s “Soccer Men”)
“He has equal precision and power in both feet. I have never seen anyone else like it except Andreas Brehme.” — Franz Beckenbauer (quoted from Simon Kuper’s “Soccer Men”)
“We have that spirit because our emblematic player is humble. I think Zidane has obliged each of us to carry ourselves irreproachably on the pitch. [ . . . ] Zidane never throws a dirty look at a player who makes a bad pass. He never neglects to try to win the ball simply because his name is Zidane.” — Lilian Thuram (in his autobiography; quoted from Simon Kuper’s “Soccer Men”)
“Zidane achieves on the field what everyone dreams of doing just once. Even if I had trained day and night, I would never have got there.” — Didier Deschamps (quoted from Simon Kuper’s “Soccer Men”)
” . . . speaks only with the ball.” — Jorge Valdano (quoted from Simon Kuper’s “Soccer Men”)
“One of the best two or three footballers I have ever seen was Zinedine Zidane. [ . . . ] To see Zidane in action was to witness poetry in motion. The skills, the vision, the goals . . . he was a sublime performer. When he was at his peak, winning the World Cup, the Champions League and all the rest, he was unquestionably the finest player on the planet.” — Paul Scholes (quoted from his autobiography, “Scholes: My story”)
“To see Zidane in action was to witness poetry in motion.” — Paul Scholes
“What a player. Very difficult to play against, someone you can’t get the ball off. You never know where he is. To have played with somebody like that would have been great. If I had to choose somebody, it would be him.” — Paul Scholes (when asked to name one player he would have liked to play with)
“He played the most beautiful football. If there was a painting before Zinedine, it was embellished with his magical paintbrush.” — Juan Pablo Sorin (translated from French)
“For me, he is not a soccer player, he is like a classical musician. When he plays, behind his play, there is, for me, classical music.” — Hidetoshi Nakata
“In my opinion, he is one of the best footballers ever. When he played, everything he did looked so simple, because technically he was a genius. The way he received the ball was fantastic and even though he wasn’t the quickest player, he could still beat his man most of the time. As a defender, you always had to focus 100 percent and not give him any space.” — Jaap Stam (FourFourTwo magazine)
Jaap Stam certainly meant
Jaap Stam certainly meant what he said about not giving Zidane any space.
And this was in a friendly.
And this was in a friendly.
“Zidane, the best player of the modern era. [ . . . ] He seems to have so much time on the ball and there’s so much to him – dribbling, creativity, passing, scoring [ . . . ] powerful at set-pieces.” — Jamie Carragher (FourFourTwo magazine)
“One player I played against who I would have loved to have on my team was Zidane. Just an elegant, brilliant player, he was big and physical at 6’2″, but had a great touch, used to glide along the floor.” — Ryan Giggs
“For me, Zidane is one of the best players I’ve ever played against. His touch is amazing – he can do things with a ball that you’ve never seen before – and he makes it all look so easy. There’s so much creativity there, but he never appears flustered in possession of the ball – that’s a sign of a great player.” — Ryan Giggs (FourFourTwo magazine)
Giggs was certainly right about Zidane not being
Giggs was certainly right about Zidane not being flustered in possession. He saw first-hand, as Zidane shrugged off an attempted tackle from the Welshman on his way to helping set up Real Madrid’s second goal of the epic Champions League tie at Old Trafford in 2003.
“Unbelievable. The ball just seems to stick to his feet. [ . . . ] he moves so gracefully. Zidane passes the ball exactly as you’d like to receive it and scores every kind of goal. [ . . . ] A real big-game player.” — Teddy Sheringham (FourFourTwo magazine)
“He was one of those players that you watch even when you’re playing against him, because he’s so good. He always seemed to find time on the pitch, whether it’s to control the ball or find a pass. He made it look so easy.” — Ian Wright (FourFourTwo magazine)
“With a ball at his feet, Zidane was a poet.” — Philippe Auclair, renowned French journalist
“He was as elegant as a dancer- he even used the soles of his boots efficiently. Everything was easy for him; he made such movements that if I tried to copy them I would break my legs.” — Franco Baresi
“A true artist. What he could do with the ball was incredible. Only Maradona could do the same. Zizou was also a player capable of rising to the occasion at important moments, and deciding games. Remember those two goals in the final against Brazil in 1998? And that fantastic goal in the final of Champions League for Real against Bayer Leverkusen. It was a pity the way he finished his career, but nothing can erase what he did for football.” — Marcel Desailly (FourFourTwo magazine)
Marcel Desailly, here seen celebrating France's triumph in the final of the 1998 World Cup with Zidane, has been effusive in his praise for the midfield genius.
Marcel Desailly, here seen celebrating France’s triumph in the final of the 1998 World Cup with Zidane, has been effusive in his praise for the midfield genius.
“He had skill and technical ability that were just out of the ordinary. When it came to control, and especially leading the team, he managed to see and analyze situations quicker than anyone else on the field. Thanks to that [ . . . ] he made the difference.” — Marcel Desailly (translated from French)
“There was no chance of truly finding a way of stopping him. There was no secret against Zidane.” — Marcel Desailly (translated from French)
“Zidane was sublime! At the top of his form. At training it was a great thing to see, he was magic. It was as if everything went into slow motion all around him whenever he had the ball, he seemed to have so much time on the ball. Brilliant!” — Marcel Desailly (speaking about Zidane during Euro 2000)
“Zidane, Zidane, Zidane … France was in the grip of ‘zizoumania’. I never imagined it could grow to such proportions. Sometimes I asked myself if one human could withstand such passion. And did he, in any case, quite resist it? At the start of the tournament we found him a little febrile, more stretched, more demanding than usual, at least on the pitch. That febrility culminated in his expulsion against Saudi Arabia. And after a moment of depression, he reacted like a champion and started to prepare himself for the quarter-final.” — Marcel Desailly, writing in his autobiography about the pressures of being expected to perform at the highest level and carrying the hopes and expectations of an entire nation, and how Zidane eventually rose to the occasion and cemented his place in the history of the sport
“I think he was born with a ball at his feet. I think when the doctor pulled him out, he said “This is weird, there is a ball here..!” This guy could do whatever he wanted. I remember an action during Euro 2000, we were playing against the Czech Republic, and I was playing right behind him. He received the ball and two players tried to put pressure on him, to get to him and win the ball, and he did something only he knows, something with his legs; you can give me 20 years, I will never do it. It was funny because I’ve played with him for 14 years, and I looked at him and thought, “He’s not playing the same football that I’m playing.” It’s just like Messi and Ronaldo; there’s those guys, and then there’s the rest of us.” — Emmanuel Petit
“The best player since Diego Maradona, an amazing talent with great balance, two great feet and a real winning mentality.” — Ossie Ardiles (2006) (FourFourTwo magazine)
” [ . . . ] one of the all-time greatest midfield players.” — Glenn Hoddle
“I don’t need to say anything about Zinedine Zidane. You have seen it all for yourself. The man is a simply brilliant player, who can do anything he wants on the pitch. He can score goals and make them. He is the one player who could play in any team and in any position. I feel lucky to have shared a pitch with him many times.” — Laurent Blanc (FourFourTwo magazine)
“It is a great regret of mine that I never played alongside Zidane, but only played against him. That was hard enough: he was a leader on the pitch, and only looked happy with the ball at his feet. He had everything in his game you could admire, from his free-kicks to his clever passes to his team-mates.” — Gheorghe Hagi (FourFourTwo magazine)
“The best player of the last generation. He would control games, but most importantly, he always performed on the big occasions.” — Ruud Gullit (2007) (FourFourTwo magazine)
“A special player. When we look back, he’ll be up there with Maradona and Pele as one of the world’s greats. He’s in that bracket. When you play against a player like that, you have to concentrate all the time because he’s got such great feet around the box, but after the game, you just think, “Wow, what a great player.” It was a privilege to play against him.” — Shay Given (FourFourTwo magazine)
“My Idol was Zinedine Zidane. He was the most perfect player. His technique, shooting and headers, his ability to read games and boss them was fantastic.” — Mesut Ozil (FourFourTwo magazine)
“I always admired [Zinedine] Zidane. He didn’t do tricks for the sake of it. He never wanted to show off. He just played a clever game. He’s the player who decides games. I watched his technique and tried to do that in my game, and a lot of times it worked.” — Mesut Ozil
“He could do magical things using his vision, technique and powerful shot. During games it was impossible to predict his next move. Off the pitch, he was a kind and generous man.” — Andriy Shevchenko (FourFourTwo magazine)
“I was lucky enough to play against him at Euro 2004 and I remember when we were lining up in the tunnel looking over at him and thinking ‘wow.’ It was mad. I remember the game well. We’d gone 1-0 up and done pretty well, but ended up conceding two in the dying seconds, both of which Zidane scored. The first was a free-kick – I remember being sat on the bench [after being substituted] at the time thinking he was going to score when he was lining it up. I just had a feeling about it. France then got a penalty in injury time and he held his nerve to put it away. Those kinds of moments are what set the top players apart from the rest.” — Wayne Rooney
“The best player of our generation in my opinion. People talk about the likes of Maradona and Pele, but they were a long time ago and I think Zidane is certainly up there with them.” — Steve McManaman (FourFourTwo magazine)
“People say I never smile when I play but I’ve never seen [Zinedine] Zidane laugh, whether he’s winning or losing, and he’s the greatest there’s been for the last ten years.” — Juan Roman Riquelme
“I remember being on the pitch and thinking this player glides about, cruising through games, hardly breaking a sweat and can do it all. He was 6ft 2in, could pass, tackle, score, head, dribble. Absolute quality player.” — Ray Parlour (FourFourTwo magazine)
“For me, he’s the greatest player of the century. The best player of all time.” — Fabien Barthez
“(He was) the master. It was a real blessing for me to have been able to play alongside him. In training, I remember the first time we started the little games (“rondo”, or man in the middle); sometimes you give a bad ball and you except the guy to be in trouble and go in the middle, but there was no bad ball for Zinedine Zidane. Even when other players would be stressed, the situation would be in slow motion for him, and he had the time to analyze it.” — Florent Malouda
“His style across the pitch, the way he moved, it was on a different level from anyone I’ve ever played with.” — Jonathan Woodgate
“He was my favourite player growing up. The way he moves with the ball, the way he dictates play and creates chances — brilliant. He made unbelievable players look average.” — Ross Barkley
“I watched him a lot when he was playing and you can’t really say too much about him as a player. He was incredible.” — Gareth Bale
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