Zidane's parents emigrated to Paris in 1968 from the village of Aguemone in the Kabylie region of Algeria. They moved to Marseille a few years later, where Zidane was born.
Both France and Algeria consider Zidane a citizen, but he was ineligible to play for the Algerian national team. There was a rumour that coach Abdelhamid Kermali denied Zidane a position for the Algerian squad because he felt the young midfielder was not fast enough.However, Zidane dismissed the rumor in a 2005 interview, saying that he would have been ineligible to play for Algeria because he had already played for France.
German coach Franz Beckenbauer stated: "Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player." Pelé, a World Cup winner three times with Brazil, hailed Zidane after seeing Brazil losing to France: "Zidane was the magician in the game." Italy manager Marcello Lippi, who has also coached Zidane, opined "I think Zidane is the greatest talent we've known in football these last 20 years, yet he never played the prima donna. I am honoured to have been his manager.
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