Story behind the biggest Zinedine Zidane fansite
NEW SITE LAUNCH. And the story behind the creation of Zidanefans.com!
I, Magician10, webmaster of Zidanefans.com, have been a big fan of Zinedine Zidane since 1998. I was eleven years old back then and didn’t care much about football / soccer. I supported the German National team since I happen to be German but that was it, really, I had no appreciation for the beauty of the game. However this was radically changed once I laid an eye on Zinedine Zidane for the very first time. It was during the infamous 1998 World Cup Final. I had decided to support France since I had just started having French lessons at school. Luckily for me France beat Brazil in a very impressive manner but I only had eyes for the player who had scored these amazing two headers. The way he was gliding on the flied, past defenders as if he was created to do just that captivated me totally. His way of touching the ball seemed so different to me. I don’t think I need to describe the way he caresses it and does the most amazing things with it, because we have all seen that. To me he just seemed like a different creature compared to all the others on the field. His movements appeared to be so fluid, as if he wasn’t playing but following a choreography that he had learned since birth. He also had this air of mystery around him, this seriousness of an ancient warrior. I was completely baffled. And I still feel the same way, even after 11 years. So it’s only natural that I run both a blog and a fansite about Zinedine Zidane.
The history of the ZidaneFans LiveJournal blog began shortly after the 2006 World Cup final. A couple of Zidane fans decided to create a community where they could share news about Zidane without fear of reading disrespecting comments about him. I joined the community about two months later as a member only. During this time the blog was run by a series of different people until the woman who ran the blog before me, decided she didn’t have time for it anymore. Since I was already heavily involved in writing articles for the blog, I became its moderator. I’ve been doing this since February 2008.
In addition to the blog, I have always searched for an informative Zinedine Zidane fansites in English language but I have never been successful. Especially now, three years after his retirement, there seems to be no up-to-date fansite about him. And even the old websites that are still online offer little material on him. Since I had collected multiple Gigabites of Zizou material online over the years, I decided that I had to act and create a fansite myself that does this legendary player justice.
Most of my collection comes from years and years of Google research. This is how I found dozens of articles, hundreds of pictures as well as videos. Another great source was Flo_6, a French Zidane fan who has been sharing exclusive video and picture material about him since years. Various friendly members of the LiveJournal community also share what they find regularly.
I hope Zidanefans.com will be a useful resource for people who like Zidane and that many will help me to create the biggest collection about him online.
Marion Kirchner aka Magician10
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