This hub is the first in a series of small tributes to some of the world's greatest ever soccer players, these will be appearing in no particular order and the series has no fixed amount of players to feature! The inspiration behind this series is my hub 'The Best 5 Footballers of the Nineties', this profile of Zidane is almost identical to the one on that feature. Look out for more to come in the series, which I will eventually interlink at the bottom of each hub!

Zinedine 'Zizou' Zidane, is in my opinion the greatest footballer of my generation. In fact he is more than that, he is probably the only player of the last two decades that could rival the greats of previous generations. When people debate the greatest players of all time you invariably hear the great names of 'Pele', 'Maradona', 'Best' and 'Cryuff'. For me there is only one player of more recent times who can comfortably be mentioned alongside these names, and that is Zidane. I, like many, refer to him simply as 'The Scientist'.

The Scientist was enthralling, he left defenders dazzled, he left attackers on the floor and he had something that so many players these day lacked; commitment, bravery, determination, charisma? no. Yes he had those characteristics in abundance, but he had something else, something that I can only describe as 'magic'. In a career that took him all the way through the nineties, after starting in 1988 with French club Cannes at the age of just 16, he was arguably still the worlds greatest player when retiring in 2006 approaching his mid thirties.

Zidane is one of just two players ever to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award three times, and in 1998 was the catalyst of the French team that succeeded in winning the 1998 FIFA World Cup; scoring two essential goals in the final against Brazil. He was acknowledged in 2004 by Pele as one of the greatest 100 living players, I would have put him in my top 3. Of course this article is supposed to be listing the top players of the nineties, but it is well worth mentioning that his influence in the French National was extended to the year 2000 where he again led the nation of his birth to International success in the UEFA Euro 2000 competition. It is no coincidence that the French team has been much more ineffective and pretty much uninspired since the retirement of their talisman. After an unsuccessful World Cup final in 2006 against Italy, he retired from football, with 108 International Caps and 31 goals to his name. His retirement marked the end of the most successful era in French football history.

We haven't even covered his success in club football yet, Zidane learnt his trade in the smaller French teams of Cannes and Bordeaux. It was at Bordeaux that his performances helped the team reach the final of the UEFA CUP final in 1996. Italian giants Juventus became alerted to Zidane's performances and paid just £3m for the midfield maestro. Zidane and Juventus won the Seria A title in his first season as well as finishing second in the UEFA Champions League, they also retained the title in the following year. I can try and use as many adjectives and verbs as I like to try and convey the pure ability and influence of this man, but nothing could convey his true class and ability. Please see the video 'Zidane The Scientist' above to see a compilation of some of his skills. His spell with Juventus ended in 2001, but Zidane had shown enough for Real Madrid to pay 78million euros for the player, becoming the most expensive player in football history at the time.

Although aware that this period of his career was outside of the nineties, Zidane's time at Real Madrid was again a resounding success, and the club lifted the Champions League's league in 2002, the first time Zidane had lifted this trophy and in the following season Real Madrid won the La Liga. Zidane's club honours were matched equally by his individual honours, with personal honours including but not excluding the Ballon D'or, Seria A Footballer of the Year, French Ligue 1 Best Player, UEFA Euro Player of the Tournament, French Player of the Year twice, UEFA Club Player of the Year, FIFA World player of the Year and the FIFA World Cup Golden Ball. Zidane retired as one of the most admired and one of the most decorated players in football history.

If anybody has any doubts about the magic of Zidane then simply turn up your volume watch the incredible tribute to the man in the video below, this fan made video remains the best tributes to Zizou that I have seen and is the only video on the web to do the man justice.