Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane reveal who their idols were when growing up

In partnership with

GiveMeSport

·11 de noviembre de 2023

Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane reveal who their idols were when growing up

Highlights

Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane both had idols growing up who influenced their playing style and inspired them to become great players.
Zidane idolized a Uruguayan midfielder for his elegance and unique style of play.
Messi looked up to an Argentina icon for his impressive skills and admired his performances with River Plate.

For the current crop of footballers, the likes of Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane would have been among the most popular players to idolise when growing up. The Argentine may well still be playing, but having achieved so much throughout the course of this career, and now towards the latter stages of his playing days, it's hard to imagine there isn't a single player under the age of 25 who wasn't inspired by the eighth Ballon d'Or winner as a youngster.

Zinedine Zidane's beautiful words to describe Messi

OneFootball Videos

Play Video

As for Zidane, well he retired in 2006, but there will be plenty of current greats still playing today who grew up watching him do wonderful things with Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus, Real Madrid and France. If you score goals in both World Cup and Champions League finals, as both players have done, you will just leave that sort of legacy upon the game.

With their legends so well established, it's almost difficult to think back to a time when the duo were both just unknown talents, seeking out their own inspiration as they looked to make their way in the game. But, of course, every young footballer has those one or two players they idolised the most when growing up and it's the same for greats such as Messi and Zidane.

Zidane reveals love for Enzo Francescoli

The duo have been chatting all things football recently in a brilliant interview for Adidas. You may have seen the former Real Madrid star taking time to praise the ex-Barcelona ace, but in another new clip which has now been circulated on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), the pair each outline what "number 10" they liked the most when they were just kids. Zidane named Uruguayan midfielder Enzo Francescoli, explaining:

"He was playing in Marseille, and I was 13. Before I went to Cannes where I started playing, and he was playing in Marseille. And when I saw him, I said: 'I want to be him.' Because he was very elegant, you know? The way he played, the way he moved with the ball as well. I mean, you don't see that often."

Messi was actually already aware that Zidane idolised the player, noting how the Frenchman named his own kid Enzo after Francescoli. What's more, he also saw the playmaker when he was playing in Argentina with River Plate in the 90s, revealing that he even got to meet him once. Zidane looked delighted by this, smiling widely before he continued:

"In France, we are usually just French players. There were not many foreigners so when Enzo came... South American, we could see it was another [style of] football, different. And he played there, he did all sorts of things with the ball. So, I told myself, this one is a magician and I wanted to do the same."

Messi names Pablo Aimar as his idol growing up

Messi then named Argentina icon Pablo Aimar as his big idol, noting how it was great that he played against Zidane in Spain when he was with Valencia during the mid-2000s. He then spoke about why he liked the midfielder so much, saying:

"He was a player whom I always liked the way he played, and he was in River, which had a great team, and he stood out a lot. And going back to what we were saying before, apart from Diego [Maradona], who was something else – for us, he also comes first and then the rest – Pablo was the person I admired as a player. I liked him a lot..."