Tune in to the Zizou-Figo show

MUNICH: Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane, having seen off friends, rivals and fellow national team captains from their Real Madrid days, meet again on Wednesday in a showdown between the original, and greatest, galacticos.

One will survive and the other will leave football’s greatest stage for the last time when the lights go out at the Allianz Arena following the first World Cup meeting between Portugal and France in a keenly-anticipated semi-final.

Figo, the winger who has drifted inside to become Portugal’s most creative influence in their best World Cup for 40 years, bade fellow number seven and skipper David Beckham adios after beating England in a shootout in Saturday’s quarter-final.
Beckham has since stood down as England captain.

Zidane, the inspirational and majestic France skipper, has said goodbye to fellow captain Raul, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos as his revitalised team swept aside Spain and Brazil. Roberto Carlos has since retired from playing for Brazil while question marks also hover over the futures of his Real team mates Ronaldo and Raul at club and international level.

Yet, little more than a year ago, Figo and Zidane were themselves in retirement from their national teams, fatigued, bruised and demoralised by the pressures and criticism that followed Euro 2004. Their comebacks, like those of all great performers, have proved the old adage that form may be temporary, but class is permanent.

Zidane, who was 34 on June 23, the evening when without him due to suspension a struggling France beat Togo 2-0 and secured a place in the second round, is retiring after this tournament.
Figo, 34 in November, has left his future open but after playing with age-defying verve and energy may carry on in club football with Inter Milan for at least another season.

Their performances have proved that the critics were wrong to write them — and their teams — off as too old and slow to survive the pace and physical demands of a long tournament. Both players have looked supremely fit, timing their peaks to coincide with the later stages of the tournament.

Second round wins over Netherlands and Spain illustrated each man’’s determination. Figo cajoled and inspired his team against England while Zidane gave a monumental display of leadership, authority, technique and vision versus Brazil.

Once, like Figo, the most expensive player in the world when recruited by Madrid and a former FIFA World Player of the Year, Zidane now cares little for celebrity status or media attention.

He is driven still by the same personal ambition and French pride that took him, the son of Algerian immigrants, from the tough La Castellane district of Marseille to World Cup glory in 1998.

He did it once. Now, he wants to do it again. Asked if Zidane, given his scintillating form, should delay his retirement again, Domenech said: “I think he’s playing like this precisely because he is retiring. He can play with freedom and expression because he knows every game could be his last.”

The same may be said of Figo, a survivor of the “golden generation” that won the FIFA World Youth Championships of 1989 and 1991, and his team as they bid to reach the July 9 final. Reflecting on Portugal’s stirring progress, Figo said: “You think about what you have done, about the country behind you, supporting you, suffering with you and that gives you the strength to continue to play.”

As to his own international future, he was bluntly direct. “Every game could be my last. I’m not eternal…”