The press room had 90 seats. More than 75 were taken on Sunday at 5.30pm when the France manager talked about his duels with Mark van Bommel.
“It was more him charging into me, giving me little boxes. But I liked his style. He was someone with a lot of character, a lot of personality on the pitch,” Zidane said.
Louise, our intern, was in one of the remaining seats, notebook open at the tab marked “expressions”.
Silly question, but what is a box, in football terms? I wrote down “box” and waited for him to mention a card. I’m told it’s a hit, a firm bit of contact, and that the man on the receiving end says he liked the style of the man who dished them out. In basketball that’s called a foul, and it’s counted. Here, twenty years later, it becomes a compliment. I checked, and actually nobody knows exactly when a box turns into a fond memory. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
Earlier, Zidane had explained that it was Fabien Barthez who reminded him he had already played at King Baudouin Stadium: the Euro 2000 semi-final against Portugal, on 28 June 2000, won by France on a penalty he converted into a golden goal. Louise opened a new tab, “golden goal”, and wrote down a single question: why golden, and who keeps the gold?
Zidane also spoke about Eden Hazard, with whom he worked at Real Madrid. The two live in the same neighbourhood in Madrid and still bump into each other from time to time. “Eden isn’t far away, he’s a charming lad,” he said.
Where I’m from we call that a bit of contact. The club delegate notes it down, the referee doesn’t.
He finally spoke about Rayan Cherki and Ousmane Dembélé ahead of the next matches for Les Bleus.
It’s true, we checked: L'Avenir.
