The king of the new French tribe

Pele talks tomorrow. The greatest player ever to grace the playing fields will hold a press conference before Euro 2000's final in Rotterdam, at which he will name an all-star team of the tournament.

It will be a crass marketing ploy by some credit card company or other, no doubt, but it is also something every fan does. Across the Continent debates will rage, yet there is one thing that can be guaranteed: the name of Zinedine Zidane will be first amongst his equals.

If not on every single list, then the non-believers should be put in a room with a video of how Zidane controls a spiralling football, how he rolls the ball under his foot as he glides past the opposition, how, when he needs to be, he is hard, and how, when he is given the chance, he takes it. They will soon believe.

Scoring from the penalty spot should be the most straightforward task in the game, but how often it is that we see famed players miss. From Chris Waddle, Roberto Baggio through to Raul, Jaap Stam and Frank de Boer, big names miss big penalties. Not Zidane.

On Wednesday night in Brussels Zidane wrapped his right foot around the ball with total knowledge and authority. If there were nerves, they did not show. The ball hit the back of the net at an acute angle and with velocity. Victor Baia, the impressive Portugal goalkeeper, went the other way, fooled completely.

It was the last kick of the match, the pressure was on. Zidane delivered. It was a golden goal all right.

And then Zidane set off, all 6 ft 2 in and 13 st of him. One arm in the air, broad smile on his face, a regal celebration. What was also noticeable was the smile on the faces of his team-mates. Not only were they delighted Zidane had scored the goal that took them through to the final, they seemed genuinely pleased for Zidane himself. They clearly love Zizou as a man as well as a footballer. As Arsenal's Patrick Vieira said: "He is my hero." Swoon.

But it is easy to see Vieira's point. Zidane may be the eminent footballer at this tournament, the World and European Footballer of the Year in 1998 and the scorer of two goals in a World Cup final, but his on-pitch disposition is far from egotistical. Defeated, deflated opponents always treat him with special affection. The arrogance displayed by lesser players is not an affliction from which Zidane suffers, and it cannot be easy to be so modest when you know that on the night of France's World Cup victory the hundreds of thousands who crammed onto the ChampsElysees chorused "Zizou, Zizou". It was the love of a nation.

In the days that followed that July 1998 success France was overwhelmed by sociologists talking of the country's renewed sense of self-discovery. The football team, they argued, said much about the ethnic reality of modern France. Players born in Guadeloupe, Ghana and New Caledonia were prominent, others were children of Armenian, Polish and African parents. Together they conquered the world in the name of Les Bleus.

Arsene Wenger, not a figure prone to exaggeration, said: "France has a mixed history and the most recent is a history of losing. The country was exploding a little bit with different tribes of immigrants. Then suddenly you win the World Cup with a team made up predominantly of immigrants. It changed the whole political process. It gave the country the feeling they could win with different people from different countries mixed together."

The king of the new French tribe was Zidane. Born in the Algerian quarter of the rough and ready port of Marseilles in 1972, Zidane was the son of two of the city's many Algerian immigrants. But he was passed over by his local club and still seems hurt about it.

"Of course I adore Marseilles," he said before Euro 2000. "It is my town, the place where I was born. It is the club that I always supported, the club I watched from the stands when I was small. Enzo Francescoli was my favourite."

Instead Zidane was spotted by a scout from Cannes playing in a game in Aix-enProvence. He was 14, but even then had the velvet close control to stand out. As the scout, Jean Varraud, said: "A unique touch on the ball."

From Cannes Zidane moved to Bordeaux where he met Didier Deschamps, Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, although considering his talent it was late, as a 22-year-old, that Zidane was first capped for France. It was against the Czech Republic and France were 2-0 down when he came on. Zidane immediately scored twice.

People, particularly Italian people, began to pay attention. By the time Euro '96 came around Zidane was on his way to Juventus, just as the previous great French playmaker, Michel Platini, had done a decade earlier.

Yet arriving at Euro '96, Zidane had only 10 caps and disappointed to such a degree that World Soccer magazine put him down as the "French Flop" of the competition. "Flat, laboured displays," they said, although they conceded that the car crash Zidane had been in prior to the tournament could not have helped.

The man himself said: "You've got to be tough in your duels. I've the advantage of being big and solid in my legs, but I must work to be less susceptible to knocks, to fall down less often."

Two years later, prowling the green fields of France with a lion's grace, Zidane had learned to stand up. The fleetness of foot was there for all to see, as of course were the goals against Brazil.

But France, despite becoming world champions, were not the team they are now, and Zidane was not the player he is now. Zidane now has a recognised strike-force to play behind and supply.

He turned 28 last Sunday and feels he is at his peak. Strong, lithe, quick, intelligent, Zidane has everything. Sergi, only an observing substitute for Spain last week, when asked after what he thought of Zidane's performance, replied: "Gobsmacked". That, at least, was the translation.

They have lined up to sing of Zizou at Euro 2000. "He's playing football from another planet," said Lilian Thuram. "It was still a pleasure to watch Zidane," said the Denmark manager Bo Johansson after his side's 3-0 defeat. "He constructs play like nobody else," said the Portuguese full back Dimas. And from Edgar Davids, a Juventus colleague: "Simply training with Zizou inspires me."

From the man in the middle there is not so much. Zidane talks with his head down but plays with it up. One day, he said, he would like to play in Spain. He will not stamp his gifted feet in the manner of others when the time comes to leave Italy. Nor will they be glad to see the back of him, even if he orchestrates a French victory tonight.

They know a player when they see one in Italy. They understand the privilege of watching a man like Zinedine Zidane. Pele must, too. When he reads out his list, ZZ will be top.