KAMAR BASULIA (Bangladesh), Nov 7: French superstar footballer Zinedine Zidane delighted thousands of Bangladeshi villagers on Tuesday with an impromptu show of his legendary skills.Zidane was on a visit to the village of Kamar Basulia near the capital Dhaka to meet former beggars who had transformed their lives through tiny loans from Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus's pioneering Grameen Bank.

“He is my hero. I never thought I would see him in my own village. I still cannot believe this is happening,” 16-year-old schoolboy Zakir Hossain said as he watched Zidane play from a tree top.

Zidane, who is on a two-day visit to the Muslim-majority country at Yunus's invitation, was showered with flowers by the villagers. Some 10,000 people turned out to watch him play.

“I am completely taken aback,” Zidane, a Muslim, told the private Ntv television channel.

“I never thought that people living thousands of miles away in small villages here in Bangladesh would know who I am,” he added.

But he brushed aside questions about the notorious World Cup final incident in which he head-butted Italian international Marco Materazzi and was sent off minutes from the end of play.

“Much has been said about that episode and so I don't want to comment anymore,” he said.

Rahima Ahkter, 50, who began begging in 1976 after the death of her husband, told the footballer she took a loan in 2003 for 500 taka (seven dollars) and began selling toothpaste and shampoo door to door.

Another former beggar, Mohammad Babul, also 50, told how he was able to give up begging after taking out a similar-sized loan to sell vegetables.

As well as meeting the former beggars, Zidane met women borrowers from the village. The bank targets women because it believes they are more astute at running family finances.

“I am stunned by the affection that people here have shown me,” he told reporters later in Dhaka.

He said he hoped that football would thrive in Bangladesh and pledged to play a role in developing it.

“Football is a European game and that's why European football is better than Asian (football). But I believe that if the Asian nations try hard they can narrow the gap,” he said, speaking in French through an interpreter.

“I will be happy to help football in Bangladesh. I hope that the organisers will also try hard to lift the standard of football in Bangladesh.

“If the boys work hard, have a plan and the organisers do their part, then football here will one day reach top level,” he added.

The retired Zidane, seen as a sporting legend in the football-crazy south Asian country, later played in an exhibition match between under-16 teams at Dhaka's national stadium.

The match, in which he wore the strips of the country's two leading teams, was watched by around 30,000 spectators and shown live on the private Ntv television channel to an estimated audience of around 25 million.

On Wednesday, he is to officially open a factory project run by French food giant Danone and Grameen Bank at a ceremony in Dhaka.

Each has a 50 percent stake in the one million dollar plant in the northern town of Bogra, which is aimed at producing nutritious food products targeted at people on low-incomes.

Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, is one of the world's poorest countries.

Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last month. Since 1976, the bank has been credited with lifting millions out of poverty and the concept has been replicated in more than 40 countries.—AFP