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Zidane's struggles a warning

Radnedge: Too many games hurting soccer

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Posted: Wednesday September 01, 1999 04:34 PM

Zidane (center) dribbles during the UEFA Intertoto Cup final game in Rennes, western France. AP

By Keir Radnedge, CNN/SI

Zinedine Zidane won all of the media's top honors last year. He was voted European Footballer of the Year, French Sportsman of the year as well as FIFA's World Player of the Year.

He was almost too busy collecting awards to play for Juventus and France. Then, when he did, he damaged a knee so badly that Juventus crashed out of the European Cup and the Italian championship race and domestic cup.

That's why Juventus sent Zidane home to France for knee surgery this summer and then rested him through their InterToto Cup campaign.

A year earlier, Zidane, two-goal hero of France's World Cup Final triumph over Brazil, was everyone's hero. Now he is back at square one needing to prove himself all over again.

He isn't the first and he certainly won't be the last. A wedge is being driven between the men in suits who run football and its competitions and the men in tracksuits who have to pick the teams and play the games.

UEFA, the European federation, organized a coach's talk-in this week. Barcelona's Louis Van Gaal said he was attending because of the need "to defend football."

The Spanish champions' Dutch coach is worried that he demands of the newly-expanded Champions League will weaken the status of domestic competitions, that fans will become bored by a surfeit of football on television and that players will be worn down long before their sell-by date.

Clubs such as Barcelona sign 20 star players now -- not out of greed but as insurance against injures.

As for Zidane, he hopes to be back for France this weekend against Ukraine in the European Championship.

Ranged against him will be Andriy Shevchenko, the new attacking hero of European football. Shevchenko scored a debut goal last weekend in the Italian league to begin repaying Milan $18 million he cost them recently from Dynamo Kiev.

Whether Shevchenko looks quite as bright and eager in a year's time is another matter.

Keir Radnedge is executive editor of World Soccer magazine.

 

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