Quotes About Zinedine Zidane

#1. Steve McManaman once described Zinedine Zidane as ridiculous. You can't get a higher compliment than that.

Jason McAteer

#2. Iniesta - he is the Zinedine Zidane of the team, because he can do whatever you want him to with the ball.

Yaya Toure

#3. Zinedine Zidane could be a champion sumo wrestler. He can run like a crab or a gazelle.

Howard Wilkinson

#4. I think about the great players with whom I have shared a pitch: Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane, Pirlo, Xavi, Cristiano Ronaldo - and the greatest of them all is Messi.

Paul Scholes

#5. To play with Zinedine Zidane was the biggest honour I have had in my career

David Beckham

#6. I'd compare myself to Zinedine Zidane ... a humble guy who just happened to be the best

Nicolas Anelka

#7. You can't get bored of winning. You can win 10 games in a row but you keep the same will to snatch the 11th. You always need more.

Zinedine Zidane

#8. A Mediterranean city is really my culture.

Zinedine Zidane

#9. I think Marseille is probably a place like Liverpool, very vibrant and very tough.

Zinedine Zidane

#10. I was lucky to come from a difficult area. It teaches you not just about football but also life. There were lots of kids from different races and poor families. People had to struggle to get through the day.

Zinedine Zidane

#11. Football boots are very technical and have lots of specific requirements.

Zinedine Zidane

#12. We were a family who had come from nothing and now we had respect from French people of all sorts.

Zinedine Zidane

#13. It's very sad that Tanzania is a poor football country. If elected, I promise to put this country on the world football map. I will make sure we produce our own Okochas, El Hadji Dioufs and Zinedine Zidanes here.

Jakaya Kikwete

#14. Sometimes I don't know what takes me over during a game. Sometimes I just feel I have moved to a different place and I can make the pass, score the goal or go past my marker at will.

Zinedine Zidane

#15. Zidane is the master. Over the past 10 years, there's been no-one like him, he has been the best player in the world.

Zinedine Zidane

#16. It's the first time it's happened to me and maybe the last. It's a strange sensation, not normal for me. I can't remember scoring three goals, even when I was a kid.

Zinedine Zidane

#17. We are well aware of the task ahead of us in what will be a very difficult match but which we all dream of playing.

Zinedine Zidane

#18. Life is full of regrets, but it doesn't pay to look back.

Zinedine Zidane

#19. The French team has given me so much and I want to help it. I told myself I did not have much time left in soccer, and I want to profit from it to the maximum.

Zinedine Zidane

#20. You rarely come across the complete footballer, but Scholes is as close to it as you can get. One of my regrets is that the opportunity to play alongside him never presented itself during my career.

Zinedine Zidane

#21. In France, everybody realized that God exists, and that he is back in the French international team. God is back, there is little left to say.

Zinedine Zidane

#22. It will be a physical encounter but we must not respond in kind.

Zinedine Zidane

#23. The door can never be closed for good to any player.

Zinedine Zidane

#24. My memories of events and games are fragmented.

Zinedine Zidane

#25. I have never had the opportunity to play in England, so I know little about it.

Zinedine Zidane

#26. I am first of all from La Castellane and Marseille.

Zinedine Zidane

#27. Obviously fashion is a completely different world from football.

Zinedine Zidane

#28. It's hard to explain but I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard. And this desire never to stop fighting is something else I learnt in the place where I grew up.

Zinedine Zidane

#29. I love Madrid. I am happy to be here. I have been here three years and hope to be here longer. But I am proud of where I come from and never forget the people I grew up with.

Zinedine Zidane

#30. I don't know if we are the best team in the world. I am lucky to be playing alongside some of the best players around. It's a dream.

Zinedine Zidane

#31. Zidane was from another planet. When Zidane stepped onto the pitch, the 10 other guys just got suddenly better. It is that simple.

Zinedine Zidane

#32. Messi is the Mozart of football.

Zinedine Zidane

#33. Mandela has played a crucial part in history. He's done some extraordinary things, not only for his country but also for the whole world.

Zinedine Zidane

#34. I have won many awards and I am very happy about this, but I am not the best player in the world.

Zinedine Zidane

#35. I once cried because I had no shoes to play soccer, but one day, I met a man who had no feet

Zinedine Zidane

#36. If Giggs was French, Pires or myself would have been on the bench.

Zinedine Zidane

#37. The only important thing I have to say is that my father never fought against his country.

Zinedine Zidane

#38. My father is an Algerian, proud of who he is and I am proud that my father is Algerian.

Zinedine Zidane

#39. It was my father who taught us that an immigrant must work twice as hard as anybody else, that he must never give up.

Zinedine Zidane

#40. Sometimes words are harder than blows.

Zinedine Zidane

#41. Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player.

Zinedine Zidane

#42. Zidane is unique. The ball flows with him. He is more like a dancer than a football player.

Zinedine Zidane

#43. I have no message.

Zinedine Zidane

#44. Everything Iniesta does impresses me. He could even play as goalkeeper. He's magical.

Zinedine Zidane

#45. We'll do it, we'll do it.

Zinedine Zidane

#46. Real Madrid is the most important thing that happened to me, both as a footballer and as a person.

Zinedine Zidane

#47. Zidane is probably the best player there has been in the past 20 years ... France have recovered the best Zidane and they have progressively grown throughout this tournament.

Zinedine Zidane

#48. To be recognised by a whole country is incredible.

Zinedine Zidane

#49. I have a need to play intensely every day, to fight every match hard.

Zinedine Zidane

#50. Everything I have achieved in football is due to playing football in the streets with my friends

Zinedine Zidane

#51. I have always said the French team is the most important thing that has happened to me. I thought deeply about it and I want to play for France again.

Zinedine Zidane

#52. The England team must always be respected. They always fight to the end.

Zinedine Zidane

#53. We must not let ourselves get driven off course, no matter what happens we must stick to our natural game.

Zinedine Zidane

#54. It's true, pressure is something that goes with football nowadays. You need to accept it, and everything that it involves - the good and the bad.

Zinedine Zidane

#55. All of us at Juventus agreed Manchester United were the best side we met in the Champions League. They have so many talented young players and can only get better and better. Giggs is truly world class

Zinedine Zidane

#56. Every day I think about where I come from and I am still proud to be who I am: first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman.

Zinedine Zidane

#57. There are evil people, and I don't even want to hear those guys speak.

Zinedine Zidane

#58. Scholes is undoubtedly the best midfielder of his generation.

Zinedine Zidane

#59. My passion for the game comes from the city of Marseille itself. Unfortunately I can't go back there as much I want to because I play a lot here and abroad.

Zinedine Zidane

#60. I may have had a lot of luck in my life, but I still need to find a challenge in the game.

Zinedine Zidane

#61. Nobody knows if Zidane is an angel or demon. He smiles like Saint Teresa and grimaces like a serial killer.

Zinedine Zidane

#62. My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder.

Zinedine Zidane

#63. When your own fans whistle and jeer, then you have a big problem.

Zinedine Zidane

#64. Music was important. Football was the easy part.

Zinedine Zidane

#65. If Zizou kept his temper, he would not be the genius that he is

Zinedine Zidane

#66. If you are determined and confident, there is nothing in this great existence that can stop you from achieving what you want.

Zinedine Zidane

#67. Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.

Zinedine Zidane

#68. I am supposed to set an example to young players.

Zinedine Zidane

#69. It's only natural to want to select your best players and there is no doubt for me that Paul Scholes is still in a class of his own. He's almost untouchable in what he does. I never tire of watching him play.

Zinedine Zidane

#70. You don't need a reason to help people.

Zinedine Zidane

#71. I have decided to come back for Les Bleus.

Zinedine Zidane

#72. There was huge pressure, especially before the big games. Not many people believed in us, but we believed in ourselves. We wanted to do something good and we did.

Zinedine Zidane

#73. It doesn't matter how many times you win an award, it is always very special.

Zinedine Zidane

#74. I am proud of where I come from and never forget the people I grew up with. Wherever I go, La Castellane is where I want to go back to.

Zinedine Zidane

#75. Messi makes the difference most of the time. In particular, he is always going forwards. He never passes the ball backwards or sideways. He has only one idea, to run towards the goal.So as a football fan, just enjoy the show.

Zinedine Zidane