Zinedine Zidane

His parents, Smaïl and Malika, immigrated to Paris from the village of Aguemoune in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylie in northern Algeria in 1953 before the start of the Algerian War.

The family, which had settled in the city's tough northern districts of Barbès and Saint-Denis, found little work in the region, and in the mid-1960s moved to the northern Marseille suburb of La Castellane in the 16th arrondissement of Marseille.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, he stated:

"I have an affinity with the Arabic world. I have it in my blood, via my parents. I'm very proud of being French, but also very proud of having these roots and this diversity."

His father worked as a warehouseman and security guard at a department store, often on the night shift, while his mother was a housewife.

The family lived a reasonably comfortable life by the standards of the neighbourhood, which was notorious throughout Marseille for its high crime and unemployment rates.

Zidane credits his strict upbringing and his father as the "guiding light" in his career.

It was in Castellane where Zidane had his earliest introduction in football, joining in at the age of five in football games that the neighbourhood's children played on the Place Tartane, an 80-by-12-yard plaza that served as the main square of the housing complex.

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (Zinédine Yazid Zidane; Zineddin Lyazid Zidan; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder.

He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most successful coaches in the world.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Zidane was a playmaker renowned for his elegance, vision, passing, ball control, and technique.

Zinedine Yazid Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in La Castellane, Marseille, in Southern France.

He is the youngest of five siblings.

Zidane is of Algerian Kabyle descent and has described himself as a "non-practising Muslim".

As a 14-year-old watching the 1986 World Cup, the performance of Diego Maradona left an indelible mark on him, with Zidane stating Maradona "was on another level".

Zidane went to Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level.

In 1996, he moved to Italian team Juventus, where he won several trophies, including two Serie A titles.

He received many individual accolades as a player, including being named FIFA World Player of the Year in 1998, 2000 and 2003, and winning the 1998 Ballon d'Or.

Zidane started his career at Cannes, before establishing himself as one of the best players in the French Ligue 1 at Bordeaux.

Capped 108 times by France, Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring a brace in the final, and was named to the All-Star team.

This triumph made him a national hero in France and he received the Legion of Honour in 1998.

He won UEFA Euro 2000 and was named Player of the Tournament.

He moved to Real Madrid for a world record fee at the time of €77.5 million in 2001, which remained unmatched for the next eight years.

In Spain, Zidane won several trophies, including a La Liga title and the UEFA Champions League.

In the 2002 Champions League final, he scored a left-foot volleyed winner that is considered one of the greatest goals in the competition's history.

In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world's greatest living players compiled by Pelé, and in the same year was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

Zidane is one of nine players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d'Or.

He was the ambassador for Qatar's successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup, the first Arab country to host the tournament.

After retiring as a player, Zidane began his coaching career at Real Madrid Castilla.

He also received the Golden Ball as Player of the Tournament at the 2006 World Cup, despite his infamous sending off in the final against Italy for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest.

He retired as the fourth-most capped player in French history.

In July 2011, Zidane named former Marseille players Blaž Slišković, Enzo Francescoli and Jean-Pierre Papin as his idols while growing up.

At the age of ten, Zidane got his first player's licence after joining the junior team of a local club from Castellane by the name of US Saint-Henri.

After spending a year and a half at US Saint-Henri, Zidane joined SO Septèmes-les-Vallons when the Septèmes coach Robert Centenero convinced the club's Director to get Zidane.

Zidane stayed with Septèmes until the age of 14, at which time he was selected to attend a three-day training camp at the CREPS (Regional Centre for Sports and Physical Education) in Aix-en-Provence, one of several such footballing institutes run by the French Football Federation.

It was here that Zidane was spotted by AS Cannes scout and former player Jean Varraud, who recommended him to the training centre director of the club.

He remained in the position for two years, before taking the helm of the first team in 2016.

In his initial two and a half seasons, Zidane became the first coach to win the Champions League three times in a row, won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup twice each, as well as a La Liga title and a Supercopa de España.

This success led to Zidane being named Best FIFA Men's Coach in 2017.

He resigned in 2018, but returned to the club in 2019, and won another La Liga and a Supercopa de España title, before leaving again in 2021.