I'm not jusk talking about their level or how you guys personnaly rate them but also their reputation. We all have a clear idea of Ozil's right now but i'd bet that many of us here including me can't say much about Zidane pre 1998 .

What were the expectations from Zidane before the WC ? was he already called WC ?



How do I make a poll ?

Zidane was heard of before the World Cup, but he earned his name in that WC98.

"Heard of" is a bit of an understatement. He was definitely regarded as their go-to guy already as the commentators clearly talked mostly about him being France's star players, cameras focused specifically at him during the anthems etc. It was definitely not a "where did he come from" moment after the final, although it helped his reputation (maybe even a tad too much, he was never at Platini's level for me).

Zidane left Ligue 1 later...  he went to Juve from Bordeaux in 1996.  He took over the team in the second part of the season in his first year and then exploded in 1997.  So Zizou was 25 when he established himself for good.

But there's a big diffence between Ozil and Zidane.  Zidane covered a lot of ground and played good defense...  in fact, Juve initially made him a holding mid in front of the defense.  They transitioned him forward midway through his first season.

He had flawless fundamentals, technique, tactical awareness and work rate.  What he lacked was confidence.  Once Zidane got confident, he left everyone in his wake at his position.

With Ozil, you're dealing with several issues...  so if he wants to reach that top plateau, he needs to fix several things.

The comparison isn't fair to Ozil tbh.  Zidane is one the top 10 players of all time.  Ozil doesn't need to be Zidane to great... because he will never be Zidane.

Zidane was "the man" for country and club at the age of 25.

sportsczy wrote:Zidane is one the top 10 players of all time

In your French dreams.

Fußball wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Zidane is one the top 10 players of all time

In your French dreams.

 Forget my dreams... why don't you google all the reputable footy magazines' top 10 rankings.  You'll see both Platini and Zidane in them.

sportsczy wrote:

Fußball wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Zidane is one the top 10 players of all time

In your French dreams.

 Forget my dreams... why don't you google all the reputable footy magazines' top 10 rankings.  You'll see both Platini and Zidane in them.

What do I care about footy magazines, most of them directly associated with French papers or organizations like France Football, Onze Mondial etc. that hand out awards like European Player Of The Year, Onze d'Or etc. themselves? I have eyes.

Pele
Maradona
Messi
Beckenbauer
Cruyff
Di Stefano
Zico
Puskas
Eusebio
Best

There you have 10 that can't be even discussed. Zidane belongs somewhere between Rivaldo and Laudrup.

Actually, the UK media rates Zidane the highest.

sportsczy wrote:

Actually, the UK media rates Zidane the highest.  

The UK media is usually completely clueless and jumps on the biggest media hype just like they're promoting their EPL brand as the greatest thing evah.

Top 1o lists are utter bollocks though.

No player below and AM

Since he played in La Liga, Serie A and in France... all 3 of those countries' have him in top 10 too. Can't read German too well; so i haven't paid attention there.

Regardless, i agree with you that Platini was better... but Zidane was also great and top 10 for sure.

Regarding your list... take Zico out and put Zidane in there. Zico was a massive flop at NT. The NTs he played on were probably the most talented ones other than perhaps the Pele/Garrincha one... flopped in competition and Zico didn't play all that well.

It would be interesting to know, outside Messi, how many hours of footage you've seen of those guys.

I assume Laudrup was the upper end of you spectrum. He's a good reference point, maybe he was even better at his peak, but Zidane accomplished more, which is huge when you start to asses legac

Laudrup was never in the conversation as the best player in the world, let alone the undisputed best player in the world.  He wasn't as good...  the big difference was the tactical awareness of Zidane despite being uber-talented.  A lot of the guys that had that insane technical edge, relied on that edge as opposed to making it work within the overall scheme.  That was one of the unique aspects of Zizou...  he adapted his skills to his teammates and scheme.  For example, with France NT, the way he played in 1998 was very different than in 2000 and even more different in 2006.  He just knew how to figure out the cracks...

sportsczy wrote:
The comparison isn't fair to Ozil tbh.  Zidane is one the top 10 players of all time.  Ozil doesn't need to be Zidane to great... because he will never be Zidane.

Zidane was "the man" for country and club at the age of 25.

I don't think it's unfair as i'm not comparing Zidane whole career to Ozil's .

I was 5 years in 98 so for sure i can't say much about Zidane's reputation / potential ( called it what you want )

Zidane was average for a lot of his first season at Juventus. He found it difficult playing many games at the beginning, was awful for the first month of the season and he was called the "weak link" of Juventus' midfield.

He was more prone to have a poor match than a great one. Was poor against the top teams, and was woefully inconsistent - for example going from playing incredibly well against Ajax to looking horrible against Udinese and then Sampdoria.

All his ability was obvious but his performances occasionally matched it. He had the same issues in the first half of his 1997-98 season.

I have no idea how he won the Foreign Footballer of the Year award in 1997. He shouldn't have won the Ballon d'Or in 1998 either.

sportsczy wrote:He took over the team in the second part of the season in his first year and then exploded in 1997.

No, that's not right. He would regularly play well in the Champions League but he never "took over" Juventus in the league.

Don't have much to say because I was too young to know Zidane well enough.

I did however, add a poll for you, if you look now it will be at the bottom of the page, should you edit the OP, thats where it always is and you just need to follow what it says to create one. Simple stuff.

yeah ok pippo, etc.   

Glad to see you agree.   

Hard to argue with kids who haven't seen anyone play further than 10 years back at most... and have strong opinions regardless. All you can do is laugh and move on.

First time I have heard that Zidane had a great work rate. Most times people tend to say that he was quite lazy..

Nope... his work rate was excellent at Bordeaux and at Juve. At Madrid under VDB, they had Makalele so he stayed up. Same with NT. Once he got on the wrong side of 30 (starting in 2003 season), his work rate started dropping as it does with all CMs.

sportsczy wrote:Hard to argue with kids who haven't seen anyone play further than 10 years back at most...  and have strong opinions regardless.  All you can do is laugh and move on.

The funny thing here is that for all of your useless posturing, I'm not wrong. But please, continue with what you think about these "kids" who don't know what they are talking about. Feel free to point out what I have said that you think was inaccurate in my last post.

My memory on this is really hazy but I do remember Del Piero having more of an impact (a lot more actually) for Juventus during the 97-98 season than Zidane (in the league).

On the topic of Laudrup, a little before my time but I always read and told that, like Redondo, Laudrup had consistency issues, real ones.

Del Piero and Zidane were fantastic that year. They were both considered the best players after R9. Going into WC98, Del Piero had gotten injured and Zidane was considered the second best player going in and the best on France NT. Not a scrub France team too... you had Blanc, Dessailly, Djorkaeff, Deschamps, Lizerazu, Thuram, etc. But he was the unquestioned best player on the team.

Zizou didn't have the best of WCs... but killed the final as well all know. Del Piero didn't really regain form until the 2001-2002 season...

@Sports : What about their overrall level pre WC ? Ozil made a name of himself at Real madrid . Would you say that Ozil at 25 has proven more than Zidane pre WC 98 ?