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[Blwe_torch]

Few have matched the career highlights of Zinedine Zidane, the star Real Madrid and France midfielder whose newly announced retirement plans will leave a huge void in French and international soccer.

"Everyone is going to miss him," said France and Arsenal striker Thierry Henry.

Zidane will forever be remembered for the two headers he scored against Brazil on July 12, 1998, to win France's first World Cup.

Delirious fans chanting "Zizou For President" flooded the Champs-Elysees and Zidane's portrait and name were projected onto the Arc de Triomphe.

"I was so hungry to score a World Cup goal that I made it two," Zidane said at the time.

The son of an Algerian night watchman, born in the immigrant melting pot of Marseille, Zidane came to symbolise hopes for a new France proud of its mix of cultures and races. The success of the multiracial France team of blacks, blancs, beurs - blacks, whites and Arabs - drowned out complaints from extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen that there were too many shades of dark on the squad.

Zidane sealed his superhero status at Euro 2000, where he clinched France's place in the final with his 117th-minute "golden goal" penalty against Portugal in the semifinals.

Although disappointing in France's come-from-behind 2-1 win over Italy in the final, Zidane again won FIFA's World Player of the Year award (he also won in 1998 and 2003) and convinced Real Madrid he was worth the world record fee of $65 million it paid to secure his transfer from Juventus in 2001.

Fans would say the sensational left-footed volley Zidane scored in 2002 against Bayer Leverkusen alone amply repaid the investment. The goal clinched Madrid's ninth Champions Cup title. Zidane was voted player of the game.

Zidane said that announcing his retirement plans now will allow him to focus on "my last objective" - trying to win back the World Cup this summer in Germany - and will leave Madrid time to replace him.

The French dream is that Zidane will again carry Les Bleus to the final on July 9 in Berlin and that his last match will finish with him holding the trophy above his head once more.

But the risk is that Zidane's departure will overshadow or even distract from the French campaign. "My only concern is that we forget that he is going to play the World Cup," France coach Raymond Domenech said on Wednesday. What's important, he added, "is not the announcement that Zidane is stopping, it is the France team's participation in the World Cup."

If France melt down, as they did at the 2002 World Cup, Zidane's last match could fall on his 34th birthday, on June 23. That is when France play its last Group G match, against Togo.

But if France get beyond the group stage, then every following game could be his last. Either way, it will be a great curtain call for a great champion.

"I can't see a better farewell stage for one of the best European players of all time as the World Cup," said Germany's Franz Beckenbauer.

http://sport.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1507067.cms

[Blwe_torch]

I can't forget his brace against Brazil in the 1998 Final!
Hallmark of a great player!