Zinedine Zidane, popularly nicknamed Zizou, is a French former football midfielder. He joined the junior team of US Saint-Henri, a local club in the La Castellane district of Marseille. At the age of fourteen, he participated in the first-year junior selection for the league championship, where he caught the attention of AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud. He went to Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level. Zidane played his first Ligue 1 match at seventeen, and scored his first goal on 8 February 1991, for which he received a car as a gift from the team president. His first season with Cannes culminated in a UEFA Cup berth.

Zidane transferred to FC Girondins de Bordeaux for the 1992–93 season, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and finishing runner-up in the 1995–96 UEFA Cup in four years with the club. He played a set of midfield combinations with Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become the trademark of both Bordeaux and the 1998 French national team.

In 1996, Zidane moved to Champions League winners Juventus F.C. for a fee of £3 million, and won the 1996–97 Scudetto and the Intercontinental Cup, but lost the 1997 UEFA Champions League final 3–1 to Borussia Dortmund. He netted seven goals in 32 matches to help Juventus retain the Scudetto the next season and make their second consecutive UEFA Champions League final appearance, losing 1-0 to Real Madrid.

In 2001, Zidane joined Real Madrid for €76 million, the most expensive transfer fee in football history, and signed a four-year contract. He scored the match-winning goal in Madrid's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 CL final. The next season, Zidane was named the FIFA World Player of the Year for the third time. In 2004, fans voted him atop UEFA's fiftieth-anniversary Golden Jubilee Poll, and he was included in the FIFA 100.

Despite scoring his first-ever hat-trick in a 4-2 win over Sevilla FC, Zidane's final season of club football ended without any trophy. On 7 May 2006, Zidane, who had announced his plans to retire after the 2006 World Cup, played his last home match and scored in a 3-3 draw with Villarreal CF. The squad wore commemorative jerseys with "ZIDANE 2001–2006" below the club logo.