Zinedine Yazid Zidane (born 23 June 1972) , Arabic: زين الدين يزيد زيدان‎, (Arabic transliteration (Algerian phonetics): Zīn ad-Dīn Yazīd Zīdān ([popularly nicknamed Zizou (pronounced [zi'zu]), is a former French football player of Kabyle Algerian descent who has starred for both the French national team and four European club teams, most recently Real Madrid.

Zidane received international attention with two headed goals in the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil that essentially won his country's first ever FIFA World Cup title.

He was elected FIFA World Player of the Year a record-tying three times (1998, 2000, 2003), was elected once as the European Footballer of the Year (1998) and was awarded the Golden Ball in the 2006 World Cup. In 2004, Zidane was included in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers (50 active, 75 retired), as selected by Pelé to mark FIFA's centenary celebrations.

As announced on 25 April 2006[2], Zidane retired from football after the 2006 World Cup Final on 9 July 2006