23rd June 1968
On this day, a tragedy occurred in Argentina at the end of a local derby between River Plate and Boca Juniors, played at the El Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires. As the fans left the ground after the 0-0 draw, one of the exit gates was found to be closed, trapping those at the front of the growing queue from behind. Fans further back weren’t aware of the problem at the gate and continued to push towards the exit, crushing those fans at the front. Tragically 71 fans died and over 150 others suffered injury in the ‘Tragedy of Gate 12’. It all sounds very familiar doesn’t it – if only lessons could have been learned!
 Zidane in 2017 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Zinedine Yazid Zidane | ||
| Date of birth | 23 June 1972 | ||
| Place of birth | Marseille, France | ||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Attacking midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1981–1982 | AS Foresta | ||
| 1982–1983 | US Saint-Henri | ||
| 1983–1987 | SO Septèmes-les-Vallons | ||
| 1987–1989 | Cannes | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1989–1992 | Cannes | 61 | (6) |
| 1992–1996 | Bordeaux | 139 | (28) |
| 1996–2001 | Juventus | 151 | (24) |
| 2001–2006 | Real Madrid | 155 | (37) |
| Total | 506 | (95) | |
| International career | |||
| 1987–1988 | France U16 | ||
| 1988–1989 | France U17 | 4 | (1) |
| 1989–1990 | France U18 | 6 | (0) |
| 1990–1994 | France U21 | 20 | (3) |
| 1994–2006 | France | 108 | (31) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2014–2016 | Real Madrid Castilla | ||
| 2016–2018 | Real Madrid | ||
| 2019–2021 | Real Madrid | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Zinedine Yazid Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in La Castellane, Marseille. He is the youngest of five siblings. Zidane is of Algerian descent, and his parents, Smaïl and Malika, immigrated to Paris from the village in northern Algeria in 1953 before the start of the Algerian War. The family, which had settled in the city's tough northern districts, found little work in the region, and in the mid-1960s moved to the northern Marseille suburb of La Castellane. In an interview with Esquire magazine, he stated:
His father worked as a warehouseman and security guard at a department store, often on the night shift, while his mother was a housewife. The family lived a reasonably comfortable life by the standards of the neighbourhood, which was notorious throughout Marseille for its high crime and unemployment rates. Zidane credits his strict upbringing and his father as the "guiding light" in his career.
It was in Castellane where Zidane had his earliest introduction in football, joining in at the age of five in football games that the neighbourhood's children played on the Place Tartane, an 80-by-12-yard plaza that served as the main square of the housing complex. At the age of ten, Zidane got his first player's licence after joining the junior team of a local club from Castellane by the name of US Saint-Henri. After spending a year and a half at US Saint-Henri, Zidane joined SO Septèmes-les-Vallons when the Septèmes coach Robert Centenero convinced the club's Director to get Zidane. Zidane stayed with Septèmes until the age of 14, at which time he was selected to attend a three-day training camp at the CREPS (Regional Centre for Sports and Physical Education) in Aix-en-Provence, one of several such footballing institutes run by the French Football Federation. It was here that Zidane was spotted by an AS Cannes scout and former player Jean Varraud, who recommended him to the training centre director of the club. As a 14-year-old watching the 1986 World Cup, the performance of Maradona left an indelible mark on him, with Zidane stating Maradona "was on another level".
.jpg)
