Zidane, story of a whim

Local malorie. Local Monday 18th November 2024 10:33 PM REPORT

On July 9, 2006, Zinedine Zidane plays his last match football in the final of the World Cup. He can end his brilliant career by being a second time world champion, eight years after 1998. But he decides otherwise. In the 108th minute of the match, he ended his life as a footballer by burying his skull in the chest of an opponent.

Zidane responded to insults. But was he right to do so? Is his action honorable or selfish? Is it a glorious or pathetic ending? This gambling fact turns into ethical debates around the world. Among football fans and others, among artists, intellectuals, politicians, the impulse raises questions. What is Zidane carries on his back so that Jacques Chirac sends him his compliments on behalf of the Nation, so that the Algerian President Bouteflika or Fidel CastroSince Cuba, defend him? What does he represent for his gesture to be dissected by writers and philosophers and to inspire an artist to create a statue five meters high and three tons of bronze? To understand, let us today take the point of view of Zidane…But no Zinedine. That of Smaïl, his father. What do we find in his story that explains his son and this gesture? This story, Smaïl Zidane wrote it in his memoirs, On the Stone Paths, published in 2017 by Robert Lafon.

A documentary account of Romain Weber

Guest :

Frédéric Hermel, journalist. In 2019, he released a reference biography on the footballer: Zidane, at Flammarion; he is a daily columnist on the chaîne BFM/RMC Sport. He also produces, still on RMC, a literary podcast.

Documentary Sources:

Livres :

Smaïl Zidane, On the stone paths: from Aguemoun to the Stade de France, Michel Lafon, 2017
Frédéric Hermel, Zidane, Flammarion, 2019
And Frank, Zidane, the novel of a victory, Robert Laffont/Plon, 1999
Yvon Croizier, Final Bounce2017
Jean-Philippe Toussaint: Zidane's melancholy, Editions de Minuit, 2006
Zidane: casters, tonsure and first star, So Foot/Marabout, 2021