Number 6: Zinedine Zidane Like Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane had a sense of occasion. His balding head marked two World Cup finals, with two rare headed goals in 1998, and with a headbutt in 2006 that got him sent off in his last match ever. Yet what you mostly noticed was Zidane’ s feet. Perhaps no player in history had better ball control.
“ Yazid,” as his Algerian immigrant family called him, was born in a porr neighborhood of Marseilles in 1972. Every day on the local Place Tartane, he’ d practice his tricks-- notably his trademark roulette, which involved rolling the ball beneath his right sole while he pirouetted. The Cannes scout who spotted him reported,“ I’ ve found a boy, he has hands in the place of feet.” Zidane’ s skill would make up for his physical shortcomings. He was a soccer player, not an athlete.
Aged 22, he marked his debut for France with two goals. Two years later he joined Juventus, where he won the Italian league but lost two straight Champions League finals. By the time France reached the World Cup final against Brazil in 1998,“ Zizou” was known as a great but unfulfilled talent. But on match day,