How to forget this latest image of Zinedine Zidane on a football field. While the French team was pushed into extensions by Italy in the 2006 World Cup final, the former number 10 of the Blues was expelled at 110e A minute of play, after having raised a whim from history to the Transalpine defender Marco Materazzi.
Behind, “Zizou” left the lawn of the Berlin Olympic stadium with his head, without a look towards the trophy. It was the last time that we saw the native of Marseille crampons on the feet. Indeed, a few months before the World Cup kickoff, the former Madrid announced that he would end his career after the tournament.
This announcement, Zidane did it nineteen years ago today, during an interview with Canal+. “” After the World Cup, I will stop playing football. It is a final decision, which I carefully thought out and that I had to take before the World Cup “He said, he who was then 34 years old.
Zidane: “I arrive at an age when it's increasingly difficult”
The 98 world champion then explained the reasons for his choice, confident that he had arrived “At an age when it's more and more difficult »To recover. “” It is especially my body “He recognized.
Real Madrid's mixed results had also weighed in the scale. “” I told myself that I couldn't leave for a year. It's been two years now that the results are not there. And the results, we know the importance in a club like Madridhe had explained. I don't want to leave a third year knowing that I will not be able to do better than what I could do. »»
After hanging up the crampons, “Zizou” began a career as a coach. The ex-player in particular won three Champions League in a row on the Real Madrid bench (2016, 2017 and 2018), but also two titles of Champions of Spain (2017 and 2020). Currently without activity, the legend of French football could regain service as coach of the Blues in 2026, when Didier Deschamps will leave his place.
