Zinedine Zidane was there, but not necessarily where we expected him… Expected to be in Marseille – his hometown – for the arrival of the Olympic flame on French soil, the former number 10 of the Blues finally made a remarkable appearance in the capital, on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games, on July 26.
The 98 world champion launched this opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics with Jamel Debbouze through a short film shot at the Stade de France. “Zizou” then reappeared later in the evening, in the pouring rain, to pass the torch to Rafael Nadal.
Zidane “hanging from a helicopter”, Joly’s crazy idea
If the scene between the football legend and the tennis legend was striking, it could have been even more spectacular. Indeed, the director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Thomas Jolly, had imagined a ”
flyover of the flame carried by Zinedine Zidane, suspended from a helicopter at low altitude ” over Paris,” he revealed during an interview with Telerama.
A slightly crazy idea that clearly pleased Zidane, who ”
was OK “, according to Thomas Jolly. However, for organizational and security reasons, this project ultimately did not see the light of day.
