Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane, popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former attacking midfielder, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. ¹ The English article records that he has described himself as a "non-practicing Muslim"; it names no school for him, so his data record leaves his faith as unknown. ¹

Zinedine Yazid Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in La Castellane, in the 16th arrondissement of Marseille, the youngest of five siblings born to Algerian parents Smaïl and Malika, who had immigrated from the village of Aguemoune in Kabylia in 1953. ¹ He first played football with the neighbourhood children on the Place Tartane, joined Saint-Henri and then Septèmes-les-Vallons, and was spotted by a Cannes scout at a French Football Federation training camp. ¹

He made his professional debut for Cannes on 18 May 1989 against Nantes and scored his first goal for the club on 10 February 1991, also against Nantes. ¹ In 1992 he moved to Bordeaux, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and reaching the 1995–96 UEFA Cup final, and was named Ligue 1 Player of the Year in 1996. ¹ That year he joined Juventus, winning two Serie A titles and playing in consecutive Champions League finals in 1997 and 1998, and in 1998 he was named FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Ballon d'Or. ¹

In 2001 he joined Real Madrid for a world-record fee of about €77.5 million, and in the 2002 Champions League final he scored the winning left-foot volley against Bayer Leverkusen, a goal considered one of the greatest in the competition's history. ¹ For France, capped 108 times, he scored twice in the 1998 World Cup final win, won Euro 2000 as Player of the Tournament, and received the Golden Ball at the 2006 World Cup. ¹ That tournament ended with his sending-off in the final against Italy for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest, an incident the article calls infamous; he retired after that final as France's fourth-most capped player. ¹

After two years coaching Real Madrid Castilla, he managed the first team from 2016, becoming the first and only coach to win the Champions League three consecutive times, alongside two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups, a La Liga title and a Supercopa de España, and he was named Best FIFA Men's Coach in 2017. ¹ He resigned in 2018, returned in 2019 and won another La Liga title and Supercopa before leaving again in 2021. ¹

The English article's personal-life section states that Zidane "has described himself as a "non-practicing Muslim"" and is open about his religion and spirituality, and records that in 2016 the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre ranked him among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world, noting his modest character. ¹ These are a self-description and a listing as the source reports them, and no source used here names a school or madhhab for him. ¹

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