Zinédine Zidane in OM’s sights

A native of Marseille, Zinédine Zidane is a legend in the Marseille city although he never played for Olympique de Marseille despite the interest of Bernard Tapie at the time. The Girondins de Bordeaux explain how they attracted the midfielder trained at AS Cannes.

Zinédine Zidane is probably the most famous Marseillais on earth but the legend of the French team never played for OM. Originally from La Castellane, a town north of Marseille, Yazid (as his parents call him) played in clubs in the Marseille suburbs before being spotted and recruited by AS Cannes, where he started in age 17, launched by Jean Fernandez. Three years later, he was recruited by the Girondins de Bordeaux, where he became one of the best players in Division 1 in order to definitively launch his career for both club and French team.

The Girondins tell on their official website how they signed 20-year-old “Zizou” in the summer of 1992, despite interest from Bernard Tapie. Champion of D2 (one year after being administratively relegated), the Aquitaine club offered itself the young hope of Cannes by also recruiting two Crocodiles executives, Eric Guérit and Jean-Francois Daniel. Zidane himself confided in the club magazine at the time that this triple recruitment gave him the prospect of “facilitate automation in the field”. He also joins a certain Christophe Dugarry, with whom he became friends in the French youth teams.

Zidane left midfielder and defensive midfielder

To relieve some of the pressure put on his shoulders during this transfer, the young Zidane, who nevertheless had a season with five goals and 10 assists with AS Cannes, warns: “I am not an attacking midfielder. My technical qualities allow me to give the balloons in good conditions, after having collected them ». It is as a left midfielder in a 4-4-2 that the native of Marseille will shine for four seasons in the scapular jersey, with “Duga” and Bixente Lizarazu in the area, until the final of the 96 UEFA Cup lost against Bayern, but Rolland Courbis will indeed replace him as a defensive midfielder at times.

In 2016, Bernard Tapie confided that missing Zidane was “the biggest regret of his life”but the 98 world champion and 98 Ballon d’Or assures, for his part, that he has not “never received a call” when he was leaving Cannes in 1992.

“He had the wish, me, as a Marseillais, anyway, in my head, it could be done. But hey, afterwards I went to Bordeaux, then to Turin… and it didn’t happen”once said the man who became one of the best number 10 in the world at Juventus then an idol at Real Madrid.