PARIS, Jan 12: Zinedine Zidane has said he would like to return to the world of football, but admitted he did not know in which role.

One of the sport’s all-time greats, Zidane retired after France’s defeat by Italy in the 2006 World Cup final, where he was sent off for his infamous head-butt on Marco Materazzi.

“I have no goal but coming back into football, I would like that,” the former France playmaker told L’Equipe Magazine weekly in a rare interview released on Saturday.

“Then, in which way, how, I don’t know,” he added.

Zidane said he had a project to build soccer pitches for children in Marseille, the city where he grew up.

The gifted son of Algerian immigrants, Zidane was the inspiration behind France’s 1998 World Cup triumph on home soil and has been involved in charity since ending his playing career.

“Talking about it 10 years later still gives me the shivers,” he said of the finest moment in his career. “I was 26. We had the best team in the world. It was extraordinary. To share that with millions of people was magic.”

Now 35, Zidane said he realised the image of the ugly gesture on which he ended his career would never go away.

“I would have liked to go out in a different way but it’s done, that’s the way it is,” he said.

“I’ll have to put up with it for all my life. Having to talk about it over and over again is irritating. That’s why I don’t like giving interviews.”—Reuters