It is widely accepted that Zinedine Zidane is probably the best active footballer on the planet. If confirmation of that view were still needed, it came on April 22, when the European football’s governing body UEFA announced that fans had voted him the best European footballer of the last 50 years, ahead of German legend Franz Beckenbauer and the great Dutch striker Johann Cruyff.The distinction was the latest in a series of honours for the Marseille native, who has also been named FIFA Player of the Year three times and who won the Ballon d’Or as best European footballer in 1998.The son of Algerian immigrants, Zidane has also played a fundamental role in the social well-being of his country, serving as a model of integration for hundreds of thousands of minority youths living in decaying city suburbs. And his influence has become almost as widely known as his skills. Indian-born author Salman Rushdie has said that Zidane ‘‘has done more to improve France’s attitude toward its Moslem minority. than a thousand political speeches’’. And yet the man known here affectionately as Zizou has done so with a soft-spoken modest manner and by eschewing overtly political speeches - except on one occasion. In May 2002, after anti-immigration extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen made a strong showing in the first round of presidential elections, Zidane appealed to people go to the polls and cast their ballots ‘‘against a party (Le Pen’s National Front) that does not correspond at all to the values of France’’. His call inspired many young people to vote, and helped produce a humiliating landslide defeat for Le Pen. (gms/dpa 2004)
