Was Zinedine Zidane's Retirement Just a Clever Marketing Ploy?
Some advance warning: This post is going to be mildly critical of Zinedine Zidane. Nothing too harsh, because - as for many people - he was one of my favourite players to watch. The vision, the touch, the roulettes, the shiny bald patch. Loved it. But that's also the reason I'm about to mildly criticize him. Don't worry, this will all make sense in a minute.
My disappointment with Zizou is as follows: The man retired from football in July 2006. That's well over three years ago. Yet despite no longer being a professional footballer, Zinedine Zidane still keeps trying to sell me things, usually things branded with three stripes.
Most recently he's been fronting the "Every Team Needs..." campaign, which is - no question - an excellent set of ads.
But, aside from the question of whether someone who is no longer a professional footballer should be allowed to tell us which boots to wear (my answer: maybe) I can't shake the suspicion that Zidane is such a great marketing frontman because we're all being denied the chance to see him in action.
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