On July 12, 1998, he gave France its first star by winning the World Cup: Exactly 25 years later, Zinedine Zidane met a dozen members of that squad of world champions, on Wednesday for a small tournament in Aix-en-Provence.
For several years now, the 1998 champions have met regularly, in private or in other types of events, often in solidarity. This time he responded to an invitation from Zidane for a day at his five-a-side football complex in that city in the south of France near Marseille, where ‘Zizou’ was born.
The day began with some paddle tennis games between the ex-soccer players and ended with a gala dinner and a concert. The highlight was a soccer tournament open to teams from companies, mainly local ones, who reserved a table for dinner.
To each team, the draw awarded a 1998 world champion among those present: Didier Deschamps, Christian Karembeu, Christophe Dugarry, Bernard Diomède, Alain Boghossian, Bixente Lizarazu, Lionel Charbonnier, Fabien Barthez and, of course, Zinedine Zidane.
Left: Zidane led the ball at the 1998 World Cup.
On the right: Zidane led the ball, yesterday, 25 years later.
intact pic.twitter.com/3vDTMgrpEA– Central Judge (@Juezcentral) July 14, 2023
Zinedine Zidane continues to show his talent
On the field, the mythical N.10 once again showed that it is the big star, with actions of genius and quality technical details. “You can see that he has an exceptional touch of the ball. He is the best,” the lucky Anthony, who scored a goal from Zidane’s pass, told AFP. For the former player and former coach of Real Madrid, ‘host’ on this day of remembrance, the 1998 World Cup final, won 3-0 over Brazil, “united France and days like this allow us to commemorate it”.
Twenty-five years after winning the 1998 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane invited his former teammates to a reunion. Great history of French football 🇫🇷, great history of the World Cups. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/UW8QW57TM4
— VarskySports (@VarskySports) July 13, 2023
“We know that we continue to inspire other generations and Didier (Deschamps, the current coach) has been the replacement with the star of 2018,” he said, alluding to the other World Cup won by France, Russia-2018, with Deschamps as coach.
A few hours before, Zidane had summed up the weight of these 25 years in a few simple words: “We are not always going to talk about 98. But hey, we did it and they were good words.”
SPORTS
with AFP
