Manchester United are the most successful club in Premier League history. With thirteen league titles in twenty three years, it’s almost inequitable to expect them to have done even better.
The assiduity with which Sir Alex Ferguson started a revolution at youth level saw United produce some of the sport’s greatest ever players from their acclaimed academy. United’s philosophy has always been to produce and develop young players from within the club. That’s the principal ideology around which the club keeps building on.
But it goes without saying that United have splashed some colossal amounts of money on players they deemed worthy of wearing the red of Manchester. Jaap Stam, Rio Ferdinand, Robin van Persie are just some of the already established world-class players whom United signed in recent years. But as a fan, there’s always that player who you hoped with all your heart to join your favourite club but somehow a move never materialised. In my case, and a million others, it’s former France and Real Madrid superstar, Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane’s panache and technique with the ball was the synthesis of football and art. Thierry Henry called him God. Michel Platini called him The King. Pele called him The Master. It’s safe to assume we will run short of superlatives to describe what an immense mark he left on the football pitch.
It is speculated that United legend Eric Cantona made Sir Alex Ferguson aware of his compatriot’s raw natural talent while Zidane was at Bordeaux and even suggested his manager about snapping up this young dynamic midfielder who was expected to become one of the best players in the world in a few years. But unfortunately, in the summer of 1996 Zidane decided to join Italian club Juventus and United missed out on a potential club legend.
I always felt Zidane would have suited United’s style. And with Roy Keane and Paul Scholes as fellow partners in the middle of the park, Manchester United would have had a much better chance to add to their 1999 UEFA Champions League trophy at that time.
David Beckham and Ryan Giggs on the wings, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes in the middle and Zidane with a floating role behind any one of Dwight Yorke or Andy Cole. That would have made a stellar line up.
While United fans lamented the opportunity to sign Zidane, the Frenchman won numerous domestic and European accolades with the Old Lady including two Scudettos and a UEFA Cup. But perhaps Zidane would have been more of a luxury than a need for United as they inexorably went on to win trophy after trophy domestically. It was the spark in Europe that was missing. And few players were greater than the Frenchman to ignite that fire again.
France won the World Cup in 1998 on home soil beating Brazil 3-0. Zidane scored a brace in the final exhibiting two similar yet immaculate headers. His exploits with France and Juventus saw him take both the FIFA World Player of The Year and the Ballon d’Or in 1998.
After five years with Juventus when it was time to taste pastures new, United missed their chance again as Real Madrid acquired Zidane’s signature after Juventus accepted a then world record fee of €75 million for him. It is here at Madrid where Zizou ended his football career after 5 great years which saw Real win the UEFA Champions League and him bagging two more FIFA World Player Of The Year awards.
His goal against German club Bayer Leverkuen in the champions League final in 2002 is what football dreams are made of. Roberto Carlos gets the ball on the left wing and loops it into the box hoping for someone to catch it. Zidane, 18 yards out, adjusts his body and with the most elegant of volleys while pirouetting from the move, puts it past Leverkusen goalkeeper Hans-Jorg Butt. Hampden Park after a few seconds of stunned admiration, erupts to a eardrums splitting roar. That goal defined a generation of football fans growing up idolising this magnificent player.
Zidane was the personification of what the ideal midfielder should be like and it’s a travesty that we never got to see him in the red Manchester United shirt. Humble, unassertive, he would have been Paul Scholes’ best mate at the club.
Zidane later admitted that one of his biggest regrets in life was not to play in the same team as Paul Scholes. The mutual respect between the two monumental figures in world football is immense.
In all honesty, Manchester United have won more trophies in the last twenty years than both Real Madrid and Juventus. But a player of Zidane’s calibre and stature would have walked into that midfield and made it his own for as long as he wanted. Which is a shame because a lot of people would have enjoyed that.
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