Zinedine Zidane is one of the prides of Marseille. Born 54 years ago in the Provençal capital, the new coach of the France team has also sometimes brought sorrow to the hearts of supporters of the Marseille city club. First, perhaps, because he has never worn the OM jersey.
As a child, “Zizou” took his license notably at US Saint-Henri then at Septèmes-les-Vallons before leaving Marseille in 1987. At 15, he joined the AS Cannes training center. With the Riviera club, Zinedine Zidane will play a bad trick on OM. On September 22, 1990, he started for OM-AS Cannes, 10th day of what was still called D1.
For his first time at the Stade Vélodrome as a player for a professional team, Zidane contributed to Cannes’ 1-0 success thanks to a direct free kick from Mlinaric. A real feat achieved on Olympian soil while OM had been crushing French football since the previous year. After a Cup-championship double in 1989, Bernard Tapie’s club retained the championship title in 1990.
An attack Waddle, Papin, Cantona
In that fall of 1990, the young Zinedine Zidane, aged 18, had managed to cause a lot of problems in a Marseille midfield composed at the OM-Cannes kick-off of the experienced Bernard Pardo, Philippe Vercruysse and Dragan Stojkovic. The OM attack was a dream: Chris Waddle, Jean-Pierre Papin and Eric Cantona.
Many years later, Zinedine Zidane mentioned this OM-Cannes. “I remember it well because it was also Franz Beckenbauer’s first match on the OM bench. I am a holdertold the 1998 world champion to The Magazine Team last March. My dad didn’t want to take a day off to come see me. He was passionate about his work. He had simply come to the end.
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