France coach Raymond Domenech has warned his team against focusing too much on their European qualifier against Italy next month. With good reason too.
The long time rivalry between the two footballing giants turned to fever pitch last year when Italy won the World Cup final on penalties after France star Zinedine Zidane was sent off for headbutting defender Marco Materazzi.
But for Domenech the September 8 qualifier between the two nations in Milan “doesn’t count” and should not be seen as another chance to avenge their World Cup loss.
Zidane sure did enjoy a barnstorming finish and went on to win the Bluesquare.com Stewards’ Cup. Not only that, he gatecrash Borderlescott’s Goodwood party too.
The horse, that is.
Jamie Spencer gave James Fanshawe’s gelding (6-1 favourite) a stealthy ride and showed super speed to get up by a short head beneath the shadow of the post.
Borderlescott, trained by Robin Bastiman, was desperately unlucky not to land back-to-back renewals of the race and was just touched off, having looked every inch the winner under Royston Ffrench in the final furlong.
But the finish proved beyond doubt that Zidane is back in business and finishing only seventh when also favourite for the Wokingham at Royal Ascot on his last start, and Spencer said: “I knew he hit the line good. I must have been 15 or 20 lengths off at them at halfway - he’s some tool. He’s picked them up one by one.
I sure don’t blame Zidane for this since we all know the reason. The problem is with you, Materazzi. When are you going to show some balls and apologise to Zizou?
BERLIN: Italy defender Marco Materazzi says he has tried several times to arrange a meeting with Zinedine Zidane, but the Frenchman who head-butted him in the 2006 World Cup final has always refused to meet him.
“I am at peace with myself. I have tried several times to meet Zidane to put all that behind us, but he has refused. That’s his problem,†Materazzi said in an interview with Germany’s Sport Bild magazine published on Wednesday
Zidane was sent off following the head-butt to Materazzi’s chest at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium last July. The Frenchman claimed the Italian had taunted him and made crude remarks about his family.
Zidane has been invited to visit Kashmir and Al Khuddam Haj and Umrah and Services, a Srinagar-based firm, is lobbying for the former French striker to tour Kashmir.
World famed soccer star Zinedine Zidane of France could be in the Valley next month if all goes well. Greater Kashmir has learnt that Al Khuddam Haj and Umrah and Services, a Srinagar-based firm having offices abroad has started lobbying with the former French soccer hero. Al-Khuddam, which is scheduled to host the event is investing its prime Middle-East contacts to convince Zidane for the Kashmir visit.Confirming the news, CEO, Al-Khuddam Sheikh Feroz said: “It was my dream to invite Zizou to Kashmir and I am working on it. I am hopeful he will accept our invite.†Feroz aims to cash Zizou’s visit for the “promotion and revival†of soccer in Kashmir.
“My aim is to restore the lost glory of football in Kashmir and Zizou’s visit will boost the morale of budding footballers. It will also generate interest among football fans of Valley,†Feroz said.
Recently Zizou was in Bangladesh to train the young players.
Zizou journey from the rough back streets of Marseille in France to Madrid has been marked by racism, political controversy and superlative football. Zizou is already popular in Kashmir and a number of parents have named their children after him in the last few years.
Yet another speculation on who the next Zidane will be. So many rumours these days. Why not just ask the man himself to return to competitive football?
Spanish paper “Marca” reports that Real Madrid is tracking Samir Nasri (20). O.Marseille will not sell him easily but Real Madrid want Nasri become the new Zidane and will come up to make an important offer to French club.
Nicolas Sarkozy has been pleading for change amongs French athletes. He would have been proud to see the changing face of US soccer (football).
But if Nicolas Sarkozy is looking for any French athlete who might have dared to stray from his jogging track or from the soccer field to ponder the vicissitudes of life, he can be reassured. Except for Pierre de Coubertin, and his contribution came more than a century ago, no other man or woman from France made the Scholar Athlete International Hall of Fame. Pindar and Plato do make the list. Plato comes as a wrestler and Pindar as a somewhat woolly headed chronicler of the Pan Hellenic games. These selections will come as a shock to Sarkozy and his notion of mankind as a giant group of wind up toys.
Never fear. All French athletes are hard at toil and not wasting time taking courses at the Sorbonne or École Nationale d’Administration (Enarque). Sarkozy is proud of the fact that most of his administration are not “Enarque.” You are paid not to think but to do. Jogging is in, walking out. The public veneration of money rather than ideas is being celebrated. And Zinedine Zidane’s leads the way with the disclosure that he earned $18 million last year, more than singer Ronny Halliday, or any other political figure.
Zidane and Schumacher speeds around a F1 track for charity. A noble effort, one might add.
Michael Schumacher and Zinedine Zidane, both eschewing to wear a crash helmet, sped around the Magny-Cours circuit in a high-speed Ferrari Enzo FXX sports car on Saturday morning to help raise funds for two charities.
The charities, ironically, were the Paris-based Institute for Cerebral and Medullar Disorders (ICM) and the European Association Against Leucodystrophies (ELA), both concerned with brain and spinal injuries.
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