I saw things before others - Zidane

9 years ago

I saw things before others - Zidane

Zinedine Zidanehas spoken of his delight at being inducted into theGoal Hall of Fame, and believes he enjoyed such spectacular success as a footballer because he could see things before others did.

Zidane is the first player to enter the Hall of Fame this week following a poll of over 100,000 Goal readers, who selected the former Real Madrid and Juventus playmaker among the game's greats.
[ads4]
The Frenchman collected his award at Madrid's training centre, and claimed his ability to remain a step ahead of defenders contributed to the appreciation of his talent.
"I played by instinct," he told Goal.
"I worked hard to improve that, but everything was in my head. Playing by instinct has always been my quality. I saw things shortly before others did. Faster than the defender understood them anyway."
Zidane retired after the 2006 World Cup at the age of 34, but when asked if he could have reverted to a deeper role to prolong his career, he states that he enjoyed being involved in the final third too much to have played in that position.
He added: "Maybe I could have played deeper, but my strength was giving the last pass, so it's better to be close to the opponent's area, to the opponent's goal. I think I was more effective offensively.
"I loved creating goals, being there, close to the area. It was my thing. I liked creating goals better than scoring myself."
A key element of Zidane's legacy was his elegance on the pitch and the ease with which he could glide past opposition defenders, but he admits that wasn't something he concentrated on.
"I'm aware of that but I don't want to focus on this aesthetic thing," he said. "Because even though I was beautiful to watch, the most important thing was that I was effective on the pitch.
"It's true that I wasn't a great goalscorer, I made goals a lot more than I scored. And I want to focus on my efficiency."
That efficiency helped France win the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, while the midfielder also led Juventus and Real Madrid to many more titles before his retirement in 2006. His feats with the latter have led to him being considered among the pantheon of legends at the Spanish giants.
"I've met people who compared me a bit to [Alfredo] Di Stefano, saying I had almost the same style technically with the ball. But everyone lives in his time, with the rhythm of his time. And today it [the game] goes even faster. But I think I would manage."
A panel of experts from acrossGoal's global network chose a shortlist of 15 former stars to enter the Hall of Fame, with readers deciding on the final five.