Just announced his international retirement is over
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Just announced his international retirement is over
Just heard it there on sky sports news, unbelievable!
will make the home game all that bit tougher.
PARIS, Aug 3 (AFP) - French star Zinedine Zidane on Wednesday
announced that he is coming out of international retirement to help
his country's flagging World Cup campaign.
The 33-year-old Real Madrid midfielder quit the national team
after Euro 2004 when France were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
Not unduly worried. Great player that he is/was, it would still be a tough task for us regardless.
Updated: 11:33 AM EDT
Zidane Will Come Out of Retirement to Play for France
Real Madrid Had Retired From International Play
PARIS (Aug. 3) - Real Madrid star Zinedine Zidane announced Wednesday that he will come out of international retirement to play for France.
"I have decided to come back for Les Bleus," Zidane wrote on his official Web site.
The 33-year-old midfielder had retired from international soccer after the 2004 European Championships.
He will make his comeback in an Aug. 17 friendly against Ivory Coast.
08/03/05 11:25 EDT
Where were you guys on 1st April? :rolleyes:
BOLL*X!!! Just what we need! :(
and Makelele. :eek:
think makelele is back aswell....
...Platini as well...
Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makelele are returning to the French national football team after a 1-year hiatus according to the Real Madrid midfielder. Zidane left at the same time that Raymond Domenech was appointed head coach. France are currently struggling to qualify for the 2006 World Cup Finals.
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Group 4 standings & fixtures
VIEIRA: Why I left Arsenal
The duo, integral parts of a highly successful French team, handed in their international retirement a year ago as the new coach took over at the helm of les Blues.
Zidane's last game for France was at Euro 2004 in Portugal, and having made his decision he was adamant that he would not return to the international fold.
However, as France struggle to qualify for the World Cup Finals to be held in Germany next summer, the pair feel a return is necessary to help them to qualification.
"Raymond Domenech came to see us a two or three times in Madrid. I speak of 'us' because I speak for Claude as well, as he is making a comeback too, said Zidane on his official website.
"I've thought about it a lot and I want to rejoin the national team.
"I don't want to go into the details, the whys and hows. I don't want to make a return like Zorro, as a saviour.
"The French national team has given me a lot and I want to help them. I want to help the French national team. I want to help the French national team. I say it to you three times," he added.
"For the first time in my life, I'm going back on something very important. When I took my decision, I didn't take it lightly. I thought long and hard about it.
"Today, I'm doing the same thing, but in reverse. Yes, I'm moved. Yes, I know that I'm going back on something and lots of people are going to say, 'Why didn't he do it before? Why now? Why has he waited so long?'
"I think that it's mostly because I went on holiday and I said to myself that I haven't got a lot left to play for in football. And I want to make the most of it whilst I can.
The midfielder has set the Ivory Coast game on the 17th of August as the date for his comeback.
Zidane won 93 caps for France and scored 26 goals. His last international game came at Euro 2004 against eventual champions Greece.
This is no April Fool. It's all over the news.
Is that true about Makelele too? Oh Oh. Danger here...
They have a friendly against Ivory Coast in August. 4 days before Dublin they have the Faroes at home so they'll probably be in good shape by then.
At least it's the same for Switzerland too :)
He might as well have called up Charles de f*cking Gaulle. I still reckon we can take them.
OH NO! - I had a feeling that was gonna happen...
To be honest I think this will work in our favour - the french will get confidnet and coky and they might even be favourites....when do we perform best and get teh surprise results?
Too right Donal & Concanta, we always play best against better opposition. And they were still crap in Euro 2004 even with all their stars.
We should bring back Deano, Trigger, Lee Carsley & Gary Kelly!
Given
Carr
Cunnigham
O Brien
Finnan
Reid
Kilbane
Keane
Duff
Morrison
Keane
THis team CAN win ... if roy does it for us one last time
Atmosphere will be amazing. I'll be stuck in UK doing my expectant father routine though. I'll set up the video just in case :)
Dont care what anyone says this is bad news for us.
Zidane hasnt being playing the best lately but he's still likely to score a goal of out nothing, still world class.
As for makelele he was one of chelseas best players last year, not good.
Massive performance needed to get a result now
I cant wait to get to see Zindane in the flesh been outplayed by Kilbane and been marked out of the game by John O Shea. Come on you boys in Green.
Israel must be delighted.
I'm delighted, I'd rather us to beat a strong French side than a mediocre one. It's gonna be a fascinating game though with Keane and Vieira's last stand too, can expect that to be hyped to the last on Sky over the next few weeks. It'll prob put the price of tickets up with the touts alot though. To quote Alan Partridge - Scum, subhuman scum.
We're f-cked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Yea, I think they have played both their France games.
Someone needs to do a 'spread chart thing' with France beating
the Swiss, what would happen if we drew with France?
Also could we qualify if we lost to France?
I guess it gets complicated.
Whatever way ye look at it its a real kick in the nuts :mad: The only way France were ever gonna come back into the equation was by bringing back two recent great midfielders. This is fupping bad stuff. They better go hell for leather straight into them. I reckon BK is thinking bout his future prospects today.
Ah Merde!
I still think we can do it though. We didn't give them a scare in Paris because of all the great players we had*, we did because we play very well as a team.
[SIZE=1]*we do have one or two great players BTW[/SIZE]
Marked out of the game by o'shea !!!!!!!
what planet you been living on last year? :D :p :D :o
Yea it's a sign of true desperation from the Froggies.
From the horses mouth:-
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2003/04: Zidane spoke candidly about his form as Madrid's season derailed with defeats in the Spanish Cup final, Champions League and Primera División. "The plain truth is I'm playing badly," he said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Well let's hope so.
Lads we can still beat them but its now going to be way more difficult. Besides Viera France had a slection of pretty average players in their midfield playing in most of the qualifiers (I think Dacourt is pretty s**t and Pires has been dropped) but now they'll have an extra two World Class midfielders to choose from. I'd say though that they'll only play Zidane as I can't see Viera and Makele playing together if they are going for a win.
Makelele is one of the best holding midfielders in the world. He's a cert to start. Vieira won't play the holding role.
I remeber when we were paired with Italy in the 94 world cup and no one gave us a chance of drawing with them let alone beating them. Comments like "we're fcuked" etc are ill informed at best and hysterical at worst.
We are Irish, lets show some faith in our ability to beat the best as we have done in the past and shall do again.
Well, it's going to be tough. I'm still more worried about Henry though particulary with Zidane feeding him passes. That said, we play the games for a reason so let's go out there and do it! I'm flying back for the match and I'll be in fine voice for the game.
Royston will need to play a blinder but then so will everyone else. O'Shea should be dropped for the match.
Whats ill informed about that, its stating the bloddy obvious we haven't beaten a decent side comptetively in years. We'll rue dropping those 4 points against Israel..Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy
Good point!Quote:
Originally Posted by laurent
The France game will be the acid test for Brain Kerr and his team - if he wins he will be a legend if he loses he probably will be looking for a new job. A draw is the most probable result though...
If history is anything to go by we have little to worry about,
the last time we lost at home to France was in 1954 (3:5), anyone
remember it?
Also we have won *all* our home competive matches against France since
then (All preliminarys) :-
1974 2:1
1978 1:0
1982 3:2
Also a 0:0 draw in a friendly in 1989.
So our record is very good
Lads, Zidane was poor last year for Madrid and if memory serves me correctly he was also pretty shocking during Euro 2004. He has slowed down a bit and doesn't influence games as much as he used to. I can also recall Thierry Henry moaning about the French teams tactics at Euro 2004, that being everything was built\planned around Zidane rather than Henry, and Henry felt that it wasn't getting the best out of the other players, simply because Zidane slows the play down, whereas playing to suit Henry (like Arsenal do) would mean faster movement and attacking.
As for Makelele, he is a holding defensive midfielder. Since we do most of our attacking out wide through Duff and Reid, Makelele isn't going to effect us hugely. You'll have Keane squaring up to Viera, which leaves you relying on Kilbane to put in a good show, something he is usually good for in the really big games. I'm no more worried than I was this time yesterday. France will be tough no matter what, there are other players i'd be a hell of a lot more worried about than those two.
So what we have Andy O'Brien and Zinedine Kilbane!!
you forget we almost beat France in Paris, you need to get positiveQuote:
Originally Posted by Condex