Zidane named England legend because the ‘greatest on the earth’ and requested Actual Madrid to signal him

Actual Madrid’s superiority was challenged within the early 2000s as Valencia disrupted La Liga’s pure order, and Galácticos legend Zinedine Zidane has revealed he requested the signing of an England legend to place Madrid again on their perch.

Zidane and Actual’s path to the 2001/02 Champions League ultimate was one of many nice knockout runs in membership soccer historical past, beating Bayern Munich within the quarter-finals and arch-rivals Barcelona within the final 4, earlier than besting an elite Bayer Leverkusen workforce led by Michael Ballack within the ultimate.

The French soccer legend scored maybe his most well-known aim in that ultimate, volleying dwelling Roberto Carlos’ looped cross from the sting of the field to win the match 2-1.

Nevertheless, that triumph was the beginning of considerably of a trophy drought by Madrid’s personal lofty requirements. They gained the La Liga title the next 12 months, however didn’t win one other prime flight title till 2007 and needed to wait till 2011 earlier than their subsequent cup win, which was the Copa del Rey.

Barcelona accompanied English and Italian sides in dominating Europe’s elite competitors, as Actual president Florentino Perez adopted a coverage of famous person signings to regain their standing as Kings of the continent.

Perez made a behavior of luring the Premier League’s prime abilities to the Spanish capital, with Xabi Alonso revealing how Actual tempted him: “I used to be actually pleased with the workforce (Liverpool) and my team-mates and felt that we may do nice issues.

“I used to be completely happy on that facet however inside a membership you must see the massive image and one other season would have been an excessive amount of for me. It was very troublesome to take that call (to depart) but it surely was in all probability for the most effective for me as a result of if I had stayed one other season it will have been uncomfortable for me.”

Nevertheless, not everybody caved to the temptation, with Zidane revealing he particularly requested Perez to signal Steven Gerrard, just for the Liverpool captain to refuse the transfer.

Zidane named Gerrard the ‘greatest participant on the earth’

Certainly, Actual Madrid tried to signal Gerrard as soon as in 2005 and once more in 2009, probably making him one in all their largest signings of the Galácticos period, and Zidane claims it was him who pushed Perez to make the transfer, as he believed the Reds star was the primary participant in world soccer.

Gerrard is broadly thought to be among the finest midfielders in Premier League historical past regardless of by no means successful a league title with Liverpool, whereas his greatest end on the Ballon d’Or podium was third in 2005, putting behind Ronaldinho and Frank Lampard.

There is not any doubt the Liverpool famous person was let down by his teammates within the quest so as to add workforce trophies to his particular person accolades, and one has to surprise how his standing within the recreation can be seen if he had joined Madrid at Zidane’s request.