Zinedine Zidane

Yeah the headbutt was epic. For Italians :)
He may still be idolized in France or Turin. But people around the world will remember Ronaldinho more.

Good for him, I fully expect we'll hear of every barça player who ever had an edge on zidane in the coming months :)
 

MagIX

Senior Member
Zidane's 2006 world cup is the greatest, most legendary world cup performance all things considered, and played an enormous part in his legacy. That's why french people idolize him, why zizou is rated ahead of cruyff, platini etc. It's a pity to rate a player based on a dozen games but those were some of the most important ones and Zidane kept delivering. Was also rated as the best player in the world since maradona for years ( Ronaldo and Ronnie could do more in one game in their prime but they couldn't maintain the level )

If you win a WC and a EC you will be idolize in your country, that's normal. He was great in a great team at the WC and EC, but for sure the most legendary WC performance belongs Maradona in the WC 86, not even comparable to Zidane's performance, absolutely no doubt about that.
Said that, i consider Zidane one of the best player (top 5) I have ever seen. It's true that he was rated (I agree with this) the best player since Maradona for years, that was the common opinion.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
The thing about Zidane is that he was incredibly clutch.

Might not have been as consistent as he should've been throughout his career to match the hype, but there's no doubt he was a legend who stepped up when it mattered.

That's the reason he's rated so highly. That and nostalgia.

Reason R9 have kind of gotten forgotten is because of the way his career ended with injury problems and being overweight and all that.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
The thing about Zidane is that he was incredibly clutch.

Might not have been as consistent as he should've been throughout his career to match the hype, but there's no doubt he was a legend who stepped up when it mattered.

That's the reason he's rated so highly. That and nostalgia.

Reason R9 have kind of gotten forgotten is because of the way his career ended with injury problems and being overweight and all that.

I think there is a bit if a myth about him always stepping up. Can remember him being really poor at Euro 96 when a lot was expected. Can remember him being poor in CL Final in 1997 when Paul Lambert marked him out the game.

World Cup 98 he was poor for most part when country needed him, got a red card leaving them in the lurch then they relied on Thuram goals to get them to the final.

Getting a red card in 2006 when game heading to penalties and the main penalty taker is letting your team down.

Don't get me wrong he was a great player but a lot is made of him in big games based on WC 98 and his goal at hampden.
 

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
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Interesting...
 

El Flaco

Active member
(Decided to move your comment from Pep-thread to here)

Zidane is not overrated mate. He's one of the greatest of all time and is probably the best midfielder of all time. How overrated can he be that he won 3 FIFA World Player of the Year awards even when the pool of contenders was at an all-time high quality?

I stand still that Zidane was overrated without any doubts, perhaps the most overrated among former legends of this game. Don't misunderstand me, he was good and was able to do some fancy skills sometimes, but the Frenchman was slow in the way he distributed the ball and was far from effective. Zidane's amount of goals/assists wasn't really impressive even thought that he was an offensive midfielder a.k.a. #10 while playing for two of the best teams in the world at club level. And let's not forget the few titles he manage to win.

Even Rivaldo, who was fantastic during the same period and played at the same position as Zidane, was more effective and more crucial for his teams than Zidane. The fact that some would say Zidane is among top 5 in all time is hilarious. Top 20 perhaps...
 

Nucky

Senior Member
See, he didn't win 3 Balon d'Ors. He did win 3 FIFA player of the year awards and all prior to 2004 when there was no voting.

He won it because he was the best in that era 98-03.

im talking about current times, and now he IS overhyped and overidolized by many and i'm sure many of those have only seen him in madrid's shirt. a year or two ago saying that iniesta was better than him would've been a blasphemy, and even now only a few dare to claim so, i'm pretty sure this fact alone means that zidane truly IS overhyped. he has this untouchable legend status which is irritating to say the least. in his prime ronaldinho was better than zidane too, but oh this angers some people so much. but yeah, the frenchman is god. better than messi.

I agree with Iniesta and R10 being better but still Zidane was never overhyped because he actually was world class. Ronaldo is shit compared to Zidane.. Too bad we didn't get in when he was still playing in France.
 

Radec

New member
Yeah the headbutt was epic. For Italians :)
He may still be idolized in France or Turin. But people around the world will remember Ronaldinho more.

That a bit unfair Zidane is class just like Ronaldinho and Ronaldo were but more boring play style compared to the Brazilians.
 

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