The French connection: Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira

France is a land of beauty. The Louvre, The Eiffel Tower and the province of Alsace decorate its beauty. The French are a passionate people. There are two main passions in France; the first is an insatiable love for wine, the second is football.

Zinedine Zidane is perhaps the most skillful player most of us have seen. For me, he is the best player I have seen play. He could pass long and short with equal accuracy, fall back when required and, of course, his shots were like directed missiles. He was graceful, slick and a born leader on the field. The Algerian’s success was a typical rags-to-riches story. Born to immigrant parents, Zidane had to earn everything he achieved. The guy who started playing football in the streets of Marseille, ended his career after he had wooed the world. In a distinguished career, he played for Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus, and Real Madrid. Although he did not have as many goals or assists as some other creative men of his time, his strength was his dribbling, running and ball retention. He had a flair for the spectacular and almost always scored big goals in big games.

The three-time Ballon d’ Or winner played in three legendary teams. The first was the Juventus team in the late 90’s. Alongside Nedved, Inzaghi, Del Piero and Davids, Zidane was unstoppable. The next was Real Madrid of the Galacticos era. He played along with stars like Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and yet managed to shine the brightest in such a galaxy of stars. But perhaps he was at his best when he pulled on the blue colored French jersey. He was the hero of the 1998 World Cup, he led his team to the finals and scored an unforgettable brace in the finals. At Euro 2000 too, he was amazing and made France the European champions. When he came out of retirement to lead France to the 2006 World Cup final, many thought it would be the fairytale ending that his career deserved, but he ended up head-butting Materazzi and France lost on penalties.

While Zidane was a legend unto himself, there is one man who needs to be mentioned when the success of the French national team is described. The man is Patrick Vieira. If there ever existed a force of nature in the form of a footballer, it was this mountain of a man. He was simply exceptional. He was the perfect midfielder. He had endless reserves of energy, picked the perfect passes and, like his illustrious compatriot, scored big goals. But at a personal level, I feel in terms of pure effectiveness, he overshadowed Zinedine. He won the ball back, foiled counter-attacks and launched them too. He was short-tempered and wore his heart on his sleeve. He was an epitome of commitment and hard work on the field.