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Legendary French footballer and coach Zinedine Zidane gave an extensive interview to Telefoot and talked about various issues from his career, including his notorious confrontation with Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final.
I’m not proud of what I did, but I can not change the past. Everything is not perfect in human life,” said the Frenchman, referring to the Panenka-style penalty in the same final. It really was not a crazy decision. I should have done it. Of course I could not have scored, but it was the seventh or eighth minute of the match and there was a lot of time left. I only had a few seconds to decide how to hit it. Buffon was standing in front of me. He knew me well. So I had to think of something different”.
Zidane and World Cup
If the 2006 World Cup turned out to be a disappointment, before that, in 1998, Zidane celebrated the World Cup in his homeland and was then the team leader: “Every player wants to feel this moment. The World Cup in a family and friends’ environment was fabulous. As if it happened yesterday.”
One of the highlights of Zidane’s career was the 2002 Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen. He scored a very nice goal in that match: “I do not know if it was the best goal of my career, but it was the most important in any case. Until that moment I had won all the titles, I just missed the Champions League and I won with that goal.”
Zidane’s coaching career
Zidane has won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid as a coach but says the biggest contribution has been made by the players. He intends to continue working as a coach, although he has not said anything specific in this regard.
“I have had amazing players in my coaching career. I was a coach but I had a great team, I could not achieve anything alone. The future? Football is my passion, I love it and nothing has changed in that regard,” Zidane added.