Mourad Meghni, Marvin Martin, Samir Nasri, Hatem Ben Arfa or Camel Meriem: for many years, many young tricolor players were presented as the “New Zidane”. Whether it is for their origins, their technical affordance or the shattering beginnings in blue.
In the long documentary devoted to him by Canal+, Samir Nasri explained that this comparison with ZZ from an early age had been particularly difficult to live. “At the beginning, it is flattering when you are young the parallel. Afterwards, it's too much pressure ”, He thus entrusted, Djibril Cissé adding: “Being potentially compared to the best player in French history, there is a weight that is very heavy and that must wear it. You didn't ask for anything. »»
Samir Nasri is not the only one who has experienced this comparison. It was the same with Yoann Gourcuff, brought to the clouds with Bordeaux. The first craftsman of the title of champion of France won by the Girondins, he had splashed the championship of all his talent and had been rightly appointed best player in Ligue 1.
Yoann Gourcuff agreed with Christophe Dugarry
On January 13, 2009, he took advantage of a shock against PSG to write one of the most beautiful goals in the history of the championship. A weapon fact that had encouraged The team To titrate in one, the next day, “the successor” with a photo of the former Milanese in action and another by Zinedine Zidane in the background.
As Vincent Duluc reminds us in a paper devoted to the thunderous beginnings of Marvin Martin against Ukraine, on June 6, 2011, Christophe Dugarry was probably not excited by this comparison. “What he succeeded in six months, Zizou did it for sixteen years”, had written the great friend of Zinedine Zidane in a column. And the rest of Yoann Gourcuff's career would consolidate the 1998 world champion in his judgment.
