“My wife wasn’t happy, I slept with it…

By Elsa Girard-Basset | Web journalist

In addition to being one of the most formidable players in the history of football, Zinédine Zidane has managed to always keep his feet on the ground, without ever taking himself for another. He obviously owes it to the education of his parents, but also to his wife Véronique, with whom he forms a close couple. But one evening, a third person invited himself into the marital bed…

We usually say of some of the greatest players in history that they were born with a ball at their feet, and Zinédine Zidane fits this definition perfectly. From a very young age, the kid from La Castellane had only one passion: feeling the leather at the bottom of the towers in his neighborhood once school was over. And like all football romantics, Zizou first had a hero: Michel Platini.

Present as a ball boy during the cult semi-final between France and Portugal at Euro 1984, the 1998 Ballon d'Or modeled much of his game on his elder, whom he admired particularly, and of whom he dreamed of being the successor many years later.

Zinédine's funny request to Véronique Zidane for one night

But if he had great admiration for “Platoche”, the young Yazid's ultimate idol was a certain Enzo Francescoli, notably with Matra Racing and OM:

The player who made me dream when I was in the stands was Enzo Francescoli. If I had had the opportunity to play a match with him, it would have been exceptional. I played against him and somehow I realized my dream, that of having his jersey. He played for River Plate, and we exchanged shirts when I played for Juventus.

So far, will you tell us, what does this have to do with Zinédine Zidane's wife? It was the main interested party who explained it himself, aware that his request unsettled his dear one:

My dream was to sleep in this swimsuit, especially (laughs). So I washed him, and slept in his swimsuit. My wife wasn't happy because there were all the ads there, but I said, “Once!” » (laughs)

A little surprised, but eager to let her husband live one of his childhood dreams, Véronique let Zizou spend a night in the colors of this Francescoli flocked Boca Juniors jersey that had made him dream so much. A funny but also touching anecdote, which illustrates the great complicity between the couple. At the microphone of Canal+, then of “Madame Figaro”, the former number 10 had also slipped some additional confidences:

We've been together for over thirty years. I owe him a lot. I could always count on her. I like to write little notes to my wife. It becomes almost original today because with the telephone, we no longer tend to write. However, a word written by hand always has an effect and pleasure. I admit, my writing is not the most beautiful, nor the most fantastic, but that doesn't matter. The important thing is the gesture and what you put into it.

If usually, nothing comes before his wife and his family in the eyes of Zinédine Zidane, the former Madrid player could not help but make an exception for Enzo Francescoli, his youth hero. A rather crazy request seen from the outside, but which above all illustrates the football lover that Zizou is – and Véronique understood that well.