Bangladesh News

Zinedine Zidane may no longer be gracing football pitches across the world following his retirement from the game after this summer’s World Cup but the legendary footballer’s day-out in Dhaka yesterday was all about kicking the ball.

His trip to Gazipur in the morning to visit a Grameen Bank project ended with an exhibition match between a Bangladesh XI and Argentina XI where he scored the only goal for the home side. In the evening, he enthralled a 15,000-strong crowd at the Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) with glimpses of his skills that made him one of the greatest footballers of all time.

Popularly nicknamed Zizou, the enigmatic French football maestro received rousing receptions wherever he went and he found it amazing.

“My thanks to Prof (Muhammad) Yunus and Franck Riboud to invite me here. I am very happy to see the level of interest in football here. If I can do something for the children and the development of football in the country, I’ll feel very proud,” said the 34-year-old on his arrival at the BFF (Bangladesh Football Federation) Bhaban in the afternoon.

Zidane arrived in Dhaka to open a new non profit-making food plant run by Grameen Bank and French food giant Danone to provide cheap, nutritious food in Bogra.

Startled to find an army of fans on his arrival at ZIA on the Monday night, the former France football captain began his day with a trip to Itahata village in Gazipur.

His notorious head butting of Italian defender Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final did no damage to his reputation among his Bangladeshi admirers. “I am glad to see your instant reception to me, and your happy faces really made me happy.”

The thrice World Footballer-of-the-Year was surprised to find the way the poor females in the area used Grameen Bank’s microcredit schemes to get rid of poverty.

Zidane was so moved by the activities of Grameen Bank that he expressed his desire to work in future to promote the innovative idea of microcredit and launch such bank in his native village in Algeria.

“A friendship has been built between us. This is Zidane’s first visit but he will come here again in the future,” said Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Prof Yunus.

He also hoped that the BFF (Bangladesh Football Federation) would take inspiration from Zidane’s visit to develop the game in the country.

Replying to a question from a student of Itahata village, Zidane said his aim in life was to be a truck driver. But he was truly taken aback with the story of microcredit.

Jaeda Khatun, 45, described how she changed her life-style by investing small loan of Tk 3,000 about 16 years back. Now she owned land, cash deposit, and a fairly large poultry firm. Nasrin Begum (25), Sahinur Akther (50) also described similar stories through an interpreter.

As the morning wore on, their chatting got to a personal level. One asked why he did not bring his wife. A smiling Zidane said she had to take care of their four children.

Before leaving Gazipur, Zidane said that he never thought that people living thousands of miles away in small villages of Bangladesh would know who he is. Apart from Prof Yunus, chairman and chief executive officer of Danone Franck Riboud accompanied Zidane throughout the day.

The 1998 World Cup winner dedicated rest of the day to the football fraternity.

He visited the BFF Bhaban and met officials, organisers and the press before turning up at the Bangabandhu National Stadium where the crowd was eagerly waiting to see him in action. Young kids welcomed him with the slogan ‘we love football, we love Zidane’.

Zidane donned the colours of two local rivals, Abahani and Mohammedan, playing for the two under-16 sides for 28 minutes. The environment, however, was really a mess as hundreds of people — mostly relatives of BFF officials and influential administrators and relentless photojournalists — invaded the pitch before the exhibition match.

At one stage, Zidane’s security team warned that the legend would not play unless the field was cleared. Still, there were a number of insensible fans flocked to the sidelines when Zidane kicked off the match wearing an Abahani shirt before switching to Mohammedan 10 minutes later.

Zidane almost scored from a corner but his header was saved from the goalline by a Mohammedan defender. But the youngsters of the country frustrated the big crowd as they failed to provide the ball to the ‘artful dodger’ who managed to make a few trademark passes, show his dribbling skills for a couple of times and take two curling shots before retiring unhurt.