Zidane, no

A former Dortmund defensive midfielder recounts how he muzzled Zinédine Zidane in the 1997 Champions League final for BVB to beat Juventus 3-1.

Ballon d'Or 98 after the World Cup won by France, but also Fifa Player of the Year three times (1998, 2000 and 2003), Zinédine Zidane has only won one European Cup as a player. He obviously won the 2002 Champions League against Leverkusen with a memorable volley. Before that, the Marseille-born playmaker failed in the UEFA Cup final with Bordeaux in 1996, against AC Milan, and lost two consecutive Champions League finals with Juventus, against Borussia Dortmund. in 1997 and at Real the year after.

During his first C1 final lost to BVB, with a score of 3-1 in Munich, “Zizou” was muzzled by the opposing defensive midfielder, the Scotsman Paul Lambert, who had already rubbed shoulders with Eric Cantona against Manchester United in the semi-finals. As he tells The Guardian On Sunday, the former Motherwell player hit the Bianconeri number 21, who was then playing in support of an attacking duo Christian Vieri-Alen Boksic. He was even a decisive passer for Karl-Heinz Riedle, who opened the scoring by beating Angelo Peruzzi, before strikes from Zidane and Vieri on the uprights! It was Alessandro Del Piero, who came on at half-time, who reignited the suspense in the second half, before a third Dortmund goal from Lars Ricken.

“Zidane, he escapes you”

“People say: 'You put Zidane out of the match'.

But I was part of a big team, we did all the work collectively. But I had the game intelligence to play with world-class players and find myself where the ball fell. The thing with Zidane is that he escapes you. He often moves away from the ball, attracts you, but the ball is not the danger, he is the danger. Zidane has put me on my back a few times because he is brilliant. But it's not going to disappear either, right? »says Paul Lambert, who played a year in West Germany before returning to Scotland (where he became a Celtic executive).

Paul Lambert actually met Zinédine Zidane a few years later. Having become a coach, he obtained an interview with Carlo Ancelotti and met a “Zizou” then assistant to the head coach of Casa Blanca. “I never exchanged shirts or spoke to Zidane after the final, it’s not really my thing. But in Madrid, Paul Clément (Ancelotti's former English assistant, Editor's note) brought Zidane into Carlo's office to meet me. Zidane looked at me and said straight away: 'Paul Lambert, that's not true!' »The legend of French football has a memory.