It has been 20 years since France won the World Cup, at home no less, to 2 powerful headers from legendary playmaker, Zinedine Zidane. One of the best “number 10s” to ever play the game, Zidane was also the face of racial and community integration at a sensitive period in France’s history.
Zidane and Adidas took that opportunity to foster more community engagements through the launch of the ZZ10 playground. Located on the outskirts of Paris, near the Stade de France, kids can now be inspired to take France to greatness in the future. The court sports the iconic Adidas jersey from France ’98 with Zidane’s number 10 on it.
Zidane hopes that with better facilities than he had access to, this place can give kids a platform to shine. He told Le Parisien, “We did not have that kind of place when we were young. We took two t-shirts to make the goals and that’s it. But these neighborhoods deserve to have infrastructures of this kind.”
He added, “I consider myself an example for this youth. We all consider each other as examples. Because even if our life has changed, we leave neighborhoods. I know where I come from. The story, my story started a few steps from here. A very long time ago, my dad did not work very far from the stadium of France which did not exist yet. To have won here twenty years ago, to come back today to inaugurate this place, it is fabulous.”
To celebrate the 20 year anniversary of France’s victory, Zidane and the players from the ’98 team played in a friendly game against a Fifa ’98. It was a star-studded pitch as Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Laurent Blanc represented the French versus Edgar Davids, Usain Bolt, Samuel E’too and Christian Vieri. The French team won 3-2. Highlights can be seen below.
