Zinedine Zidane is regarded as one of the finest players to have ever played the beautiful game, and in the quarter-finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Zizou produced one of the most memorable individual performances in World Cup finals history. Do you remember it?
Following France's elimination from the Euro 2004, Zidane called time on his international career at the age of 32.
After that, under the guidance of Raymond Domenech at the time, France almost fell short of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup.
Domenech then managed to coax Zidane into coming out of retirement and help Les Bleus qualify for the tournament. Despite being 34 years old, Zidane was instrumental and captained the team all the way to the quarter-finals of the tournament, where they faced Brazil.
This is when vintage Zidane decided to strap up and produced one for the books. "Zizou" schooled his younger counterparts with his iconic long-legged running style and ability to make the game look like a walk in the park.
France went on to win that match 1-0, and beat Portugal in the semis before losing to Italy on penalties in the final – a match that was made infamous by Zidane's headbutting of Marco Materazzi and subsequent red card.
With the 2018 World Cup just around the corner, here's a flashback of THAT Zidane performance against Brazil:
What are your thoughts? Is Zidane the greatest midfielder of all time?
