The French press were dreaming on Wednesday of a glorious World Cup send-off for Zinedine Zidane the day after he announced his decision to retire following this summer’s tournament.
Leading sports daily L’Equipe dedicated five pages to the legendary 33-year-old Real Madrid playmaker’s comments on Tuesday confirming his decision to hang up his boots.
”I’ve arrived at the end,” ran the headline in the sports daily.
In its editorial L’Equipe said they held out the ”crazy hope” that the French skipper would lead the national side to the World Cup final.
Left-wing newspaper Liberation were not as optimistic, fearing that 1998 World Cup winner and 2000 European champion could be setting himself up for a disastrous career finale.
”Announcing his retirement of the number 10 jersey of Les Bleus presented the World Cup as the crowning moment in his sporting career,” wrote Liberation. ”As France are far from being the favourites in the competition, Zidane is running the risk of messing up his exit.”
Noting that Zidane was the 11th of the squad of 22 from 1998 to officially retire, The Parisien gave just half a page to the announcement, while Le Figaro noted ”the leave taking was not really a surprise”. — Sapa-AFP