Talk Asia aired an interview with Zinedine Zidane, who remains one of my favorite players of all time. (I love him! And his eyes!) In the interview, we found out that spending time with his family is his priority now, because he was mostly gone for the 17 years he played football.
Zidane says he doesn’t speak English, because when he was playing, he valued his privacy, and the media around him was mostly in English, so it was a way to protect himself from them. He’s learning English now though.
The best player he’s ever played with or against in his career is, “without hesitation” [the Brazilian] Ronaldo, because he’s the best and he had such an ease with the ball. Ronaldo impressed him most during training sessions, because every day he saw something new, something beautiful.
More thoughts from Zizou below…
For the 2010 World Cup, he thinks the four semifinalists will be Spain, Brazil, an African team, and hopefully France.
Zidane thinks highly of Cristiano Ronaldo, says that he is a great professional who has trained a huge amount to get where he is, and he respects that.
As for David Beckham, he has the same opinion, in that he thinks of him as a great professional. Even in his last days in Madrid, when he wasn’t playing much, he always trained seriously and arrived an hour before everyone else. Zidane describes Becks as sincere, a genuine guy and a gentleman. He said David treats everyone the same, from the president to the person cleaning the changing rooms.