Zinedine Zidane has revealed which two players, during his remarkable career, he found most difficult to play against.
One of the greatest football players of all time, the 52-year-old has won every trophy possible at both the club and international levels and was a member of several amazing teams when he was playing.
During his playing career, Zidane played for Juventus, Real Madrid, Cannes, Bordeaux, and both Italian and Spanish league championships. He also won the Champions League with the Santiago Bernabeu team.
The attacking midfielder also won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championships with France in 2000. However, his playing career came to an abrupt end when he was sent off in the 2006 World Cup final defeat against Italy for an infamous headbutt on Marco Materazzi.
The 1998 Ballon d’Or winner hung up his boots and spent 18 months coaching Real Madrid’s reserve squad before taking over as first-team manager at the beginning of 2016.
As a manager, Zidane led Real Madrid to two La Liga championships and three Champions Leagues in two different stints.
Though he has been linked to a return to football on multiple occasions—both Bayern Munich and Manchester United—he has not yet emerged from behind the benches at a prominent European team.
There were many defensive players in the game when Zidane was playing, some of whom are regarded as the best players of all time.
Zinedine Zidnane’s toughest opponents
In light of this, it should come as no surprise that Zidane identified two exceptional centre backs from the 1990s and 2000s as the two most challenging players he encountered during his career.
One player was Lilian Thuram, a former teammate from France with whom Zidane shared the 2000 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup.
The other was the legendary Paolo Maldini of AC Milan and Italy, who played for the San Siro team for his whole 25-year playing career.
Also Read: 5 All-Time Best French players in La Liga History
Speaking last year with Lionel Messi in a video that went viral, via Give Me Sport, Zidane said: “The toughest player Well, not the toughest player, but the hardest one in the sense that he was very good.
“Not hard in the sense that he wanted to hit you, you know? But the hardest one was Paolo Maldini because he was very smart and intelligent on the field. Sometimes I was in front of him and well…
“And Thuram. He was tough. When he is on your team, you are happy. But if he is playing against you, you are not.”
