France, with no contemporary attainments, is a country that yearns more and more to live in her past.
Who does France look to as her revenant "savior"? We see she has fished up a big prize from the sports retirement community: Zinedine Zidane.
M. Zidane is a retired professional soccer midfielder who has unretired himself for the sake of France's 2006 World Cup hopes. He is a formidable player and was voted 1998 World Cup MVP, helping win France her first ever World Cup. Without him in 2002, France's defense of her trophy was one of the most pathetic in World Cup history. The team was eliminated in the First Round without scoring a single goal.
Of Algerian Kabyle Berber ancestry, M. Zidane, a Muslim, does good work promoting racial and religious tolerance.
PARIS August 4, 2005 (Reuters) - French newspapers hailed Real Madrid soccer star Zinedine Zidane as "The Saviour".Sports daily L'Equipe caught the mood of jubilation among ordinary fans, filling its front page with a picture of Zidane under the headline "He's coming back".
"Zidane restores hope to an entire people," ran a headline in Le Parisien.
The left-leaning Liberation newspaper said Zidane could lift France. The team lies fourth behind Ireland, Switzerland and Israel in their World Cup qualifying group and faces a struggle to win a spot in next year's finals in Germany.
The media's joy at his return was tinged with concern that the gifted number 10 may no longer command the strength and skill that made him one of soccer's greatest ever players.
"It is not at all certain that Zidane, slower and more physically fragile, is the appropriate man to save a country in peril," wrote Le Figaro.
[All emphases added.]
By all accounts M. Zidane seems to be a nice guy. Pave wishes him well.
That said as influential as professional sport is, we believe French hopes misplaced. M. Zidane will prove no more a remedy for a France in decline in 2006 than his powerhouse performance of 1998 did.
PFFT (What is this?): Misplaced hopes 4 | Rayonnement français 2
i need emial addresses of france soccer players ,
i will be very happy to see them
