Zinedine Zidane

📍La Castellane, Marseille, France

“Zinedine Zidane was born in June 1972 in Marseille and grew up in La Castellane, a large housing estate of concrete towers on the northern edge of the city, overlooking the sea. His parents, Smaïl and Malika, were Kabyle Berbers from the village of Aguemoune in Algeria who had emigrated to France in the 1950s; his father worked nights as a warehouseman and security guard at a department store, and his mother kept the home. Zinedine, known at home as Yazid, was the youngest of five children, and the family was close, disciplined and loving. La Castellane was known for unemployment and crime, but for Zidane it was home, and its heart was the Place Tartane, a long, narrow concrete square between the towers where the children played football from morning until night. He joined in at five and learned to control the ball in tight spaces against older boys. His father taught him respect and hard work, and he has always said his father was his greatest influence. At ten he joined the local club, US Saint-Henri, and then SO Septèmes-les-Vallons, where his talent grew rapidly. At fourteen he was picked for a training camp in Aix-en-Provence, where a scout from AS Cannes spotted him, and he left Marseille to join the Cannes academy, living with a local family. He went on to win the World Cup in 1998 with France, scoring twice in the final, and the Champions League with Real Madrid. La Castellane, and the Place Tartane where he learned the game, remain fiercely proud of him.”

Sources: giantbomb.com Wikipedia: Zinedine Zidane