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| June 14, 2002 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1423 |
Zidane to quit after European Championship
PARIS, June 13: French soccer star Zinedine Zidane said Thursday that the national side’s disappointing World Cup showing in South Korea and Japan could be his last with Les Bleus on the world scene.
The 29-year-old Real Madrid playmaker said in an interview on the website of his sponsors Orange that he was considering quitting international football in two years.
“My aim is to do the European championships (in Portugal) and then stop. But we’ll see...,” said Zidane.
Zidane said he had never expected to see his team crash out of the World Cup finals at the first hurdle but admitted they had not done enough to avoid their goal-less flop.
The former World Footballer of the Year returned from injury to play in the 2-0 defeat to Denmark but could do nothing to save France.
Zidane said that he would not retain good memories of this year’s World Cup experience.
“I had hardly arrived when I injured myself. And then to leave like that,” he said.
“The overriding sentiment is, I repeat, disappointment. It’s not the fact at having lost the World Cup, but the manner of it. Going out like that in the first round, it’s not right.—AFP
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