Thirty six minutes with Zidane
By Fabienne Reybaud
19/06/2008
Translated from French: Magician10
INTERVIEW: The former soccer world champion launches, in collaboration with the Swiss brand IWC, a watch with his name. On this occasion he agreed on an exclusive interview with Figaro.
“He is very shy, he hates journalists and photographers and he doesn’t like having many people around him, warns George Kern, the executive of the Swiss watch brand IWC, who has presented the first Zinedine Zidane watch this Monday in Paris. “In the two years I’ve known him this is the third interview he agreed on doing, because for him it’s a distress every time. “ Interviewing a national icon, a champion of endless accomplishments (World champion in 1998, European champion in 2000, elected the best player of the world three times by Fifa), whose legend was written by his footwork and his headbutts, almost seems like an impossible venture. Incidentally, it started badly. Three days before the encounter, Zizou cancels all interviews. Except with Figaro, “the only magazine of whom he didn’t receive questions about the Euro 2008 beforehand.”…But the rules of the game have changed: The man of the 14 red cards doesn’t want to answer our questions directly anymore. He wants to come and give his answers in appropriate hands, written down, because he promised to meet us. The incongruity of the procedure had something touching to it, something upright . In detail one could read something like “you come to my pitch because I don’t have the habit to play on yours and I need to be safe.” into it. Monday, June 16, 11:30 am, inside a suit of a Parisian luxury hotel, Zidane was there. A unique being that seems to be permanently torn between pride, shyness and humility. Then this man, who is said to be silent, began to talk. With simplicity and intelligence. The conversation lasted 36 minutes.
Le Figaro: Today, you will release a watch, why?
Zinédine Zidane: It’s the fruit of an encounter, a story about men in a certain way. The IWC values are very close to my personality, there's sobriety. It’s a great company humanity-wise, I really appreciate their proximity. And then, as an admirer of beautiful watches, I am touched that such a prestigious brand pays tribute to me through creating a model bearing my name. There were watches before by Saint-Exupery and Cousteau. I am a little shocked to find myself in company of these personalities.
It seems that you're tired of talking about soccer…
(Laughs) I guess that's the same thing for you, if you spend your day writing about watches, speaking only of watches, you are content to change the topic… When I retired in 2006, I completely cut off from soccer for a year. I didn’t watch matches anymore, I stopped following competitions, I didn’t even open a newspaper. And then, with the Euro 2008, I got back into it, I watched almost all of the matches.
Do you miss soccer? You regret to have stopped?
I don’t miss my past life at all. I put an end to it and I don’t regret anything. Today it’s the pitch that I miss, together with the adrenaline rush that I felt before I started playing, then during the match. However, I have no desire to relive any of the things surrounding that, what I would call "offside". I accepted it because it was part of my job, but I wanted it to stop. For seventeen years, I lived in a soccer player cocoon of training, matches and the stuff happening besides the pitch… Now, I realize that life is something else entirely, that I can get to know people, learn of them. I am happy with what I am doing, even if some people think that I could do much more. It’s for everyone to decide freely if he wants to make his life interesting or not. I have four children, I rejoice in that. However, education is a full-time job.
How is your notion of time on a football field?
Like with any sport, it is the heart of the action, and this action we are so familiar with that we have the impression to measure time without even seeing it pass. Specifically, during a match, I didn’t think about it at all. It’s not until the moment that you are , by dint of running after the ball, very tired that your body tells you what time it is: in general, it’s the half-time and you are very happy about that…
Before entering the pitch, were you afraid?
Afraid of what? Of suffering? Of getting hurt? No, I've never been afraid. The terrain is where I felt the best. If you are talking about stage fright, for example, the one that have before doing your high school diploma, I cannot tell because I did not have the luck to do that… For me, the fear before a match was good stress, a positive energy that helps you win.
That's why you did not fear, because you were sure to win?
(He bursts out laughing.) Not really! "Winning", as they say in our jargon, I've learned at Juventus Turino. There, I realized that winning was an obligation, that being part of one of the biggest clubs in the world forces you to bring in results. When we lost, it was a tragedy. Football a simple thing, when you practice at a high level, you've got a new match to compete every three days. That brings you back to earth very quickly after you’ve won. And when you lose, it requires you to work much harder.
You are a philosopher…
(He blushes.) This is a pretty big word for me. I always start talking like that when I defend the sport.
You've always wanted to be a footballer?
I had no career plan. In 1987, when I joined AS Cannes, I thought that, perhaps, if I was aspiring, I could become a professional. But when I saw the games on TV, I told myself: 'This is not for you! "I was wrong. In retrospect, I was on TV quite a few times… When I see where I come from and where I am now, I think it’s not bad!
The time according to Zidane, what is it? Time passes? "Time is money"?
It's that time passes. And it does so very quickly…