France: the masala mix
Thierry Henry and Zinadine Zidane
The two hottest players in the French team are of foreign descent too.
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Zidane belongs to an Algerian Berber family who moved to France before Zizou was born. He grew up in a housing project in a tough neighbourhood in northern Marseilles, the French port. His dad migrated from Taguemount in the high and lonely reaches of the coastal mountains of Algeria and worked in a warehouse on a night shift to keep the family going. The shy, gentle Yaz, as he was called in his childhood, was often spotted kicking a ball.
Zizou, who calls himself a non-practising Muslim, retains ties with his old neighbourhood. His parents live not very far from where he grew up, his brother coaches a local team in Marseilles, and though he has a house in Paris Zidane is often in Marseilles.
In 1992 Zizou married Veronique, a Spanish-French dancer who he met when he was playing for a football club in Cannes.
The Generals in Germany
Henry has French Caribbean origins although he was born in the working-class township of Les Ulis, 23 km out of Paris, near Orly airport. He speaks French, Italian, Creole and English.
His father migrated to France from Guadeloupe; his mom is from Martinique. Henry's dad was certain that his young son would one day play football for France. Antoine Henry was a fixture on the sidelines at all of Thierry's games and according to a profile in The Guardian he would sometimes come onto the field and argue on his son's behalf with the referee!
Va Va Voom trained at FFF Academy, one of France's best football schools, near Paris, where it was only his great football skills that kept him on the rolls; his academic grades were rather poor.
When he was 17 and playing for youth football club Viry-Chatillon he was invited to join Monaco, then Juventus.
He plays for Arsenal and, despite rumours of a move to Spain, Henry decided to stay after the Champions League final. He was moved by the tremendous support from Arsenal fans though the London club lost to Barcelona.
Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images
Also See: Football Fiesta: The complete coverage
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