Zinedine Zidane wants to make something clear: He’s not hearing voices.
The French soccer star said on his website that an interview he gave to France Football magazine was misinterpreted.
In those comments, published this week, Zidane explained that he decided to come out of international retirement after a mysterious conversation in the dead of night.
”One night at three in the morning, I suddenly woke up and spoke to someone,” Zidane said. ”What’s happened to me is quite mystical and even escapes me a bit.”
But on his website, Zidane said the person speaking to him was his brother.
”I’m clearly speaking about a person, not about religion, nor about something mystical,” he said.
”I didn’t want to say who that person was. But since it was misinterpreted … I say that this person was my brother,” said Zidane. ”There is nothing religious, nothing mystical, about it.”
The 33-year-old Real Madrid midfielder, who retired from international soccer last summer, announced last week that he will rejoin the national team to help France qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Zidane — Fifa’s world player of the year in 1998, 2000 and 2003 — will start his comeback in an August 17 friendly against Côte d’Ivoire and is available for crucial 2006 World Cup qualifiers beginning in September. — Sapa-AP