For a career spanning just under 20 years, Zinedine Zidane has crisscrossed the pitches of Europe and the world for club and country. From AS Cannes to Real Madrid via the Girondins de Bordeaux and Juventus, “Zizou” has had a few clashes with players on the football fields. One of which could have earned him the 2000 Ballon d’Or. Another cost him a participation in a World Cup according to the testimony of a French international. He tells.
Undisputed legend of French football, Zinedine Zidane is also one at Real Madrid. Because he won the Champions League in 2002 with his half-volley from the left sent into the top corner facing the Bayer Leverkusen (2-1) or the C1 hat-trick between 2016 and 2018 in particular. To the White House, a trip outside the Spanish borders for the Champions League would have had dramatic repercussions on his relationship with a teammate in French team.
“You meet him in private, he doesn’t even come to say hello”
Jerome Rothen celebrated his first selection on March 29, 2003 during a large victory acquired by theFrench team against Malta (6-0). However, there were only 12 more during his career. During a speech in the Memory Box of RMC in 2020, the former full-back of the PSG and theAS Monaco recounted a spat he had with Zinedine Zidane in the spring of 2004 on the field during the victory of the’ASM facing the Real Madrid of the world champion 98 (3-1). “Zidane, I don’t know if it’s a dirty talk on his part. But insults from a guy with whom you share the locker room and who you play for the national team, I think it was excessive. (editor’s note get up, son of a bitch) It’s mainly the change in behavior on his part. I can still understand the frustration and the annoyance because Zidane, who represents Real Madrid and who is taken out by little Monaco, is sure that he was going to take a beating. When you note that after this altercation with me on the field, that there is a change in attitude and that I hardly calculate… Indeed afterwards, you meet him in private, he does not even come to say hello to you.”
“He takes the liberty of calling me and getting things out of me… I’m not drawing you a picture so I can remove that passage”
This altercation recounted in his book entitled You’ll never believe me, notably earned him a second round of insults from Zinedine Zidanethis time on the phone. “I knew in 2006 why I didn’t make the World Cup while he did in 2005 against the Ivory Coast. And then there is the release of my book where I explain all that. Behind, he takes the liberty of calling me and telling me things… I’m not drawing you a picture so that I can remove this passage… I’m sorry, but it’s my story, my book is my story. It is clear that the presenter of the show Rothen gets excited about RMC et Zidane are not the best friends in the world.
