When, early last year, the Algerian Football Federation were looking for a new national team manager, they made one very ambitious pitch.
They called Zinedine Zidane, who was between jobs and has so many medals from his stints coaching Real Madrid that he can be choosy about who he says ‘yes’ to.
To Algeria, the land where his parents were born, Zidane said a polite ‘no’, but thanked the federation for considering him and reminded them of his affection for the country.
He hardly needed to add that, somewhere down the line, there might be other ways he could influence the fortunes of Les Fennecs, the Desert Foxes, as the senior national team are known.
The federation already knew. They run a well-resourced and efficient scouting department dedicated to monitoring players from the vast Algerian diaspora abroad, those who are eligible for Algerian citizenship and qualified for possible selection.
There are thousands across Europe if you count through all the levels of the sport.
Last season, that list still included Enzo Zidane, Zinedine’s eldest son and the heir whose game most resembled that of his brilliant father, a peerless attacking midfielder for Juventus, Real Madrid and France and winner of the 1998 Ballon d’Or.
Enzo was never near that sort of standard but he did make an appearance for Real Madrid’s first team, scoring a goal, and had been talented enough during his climb through Madrid’s youth sides that he was called up by the Spain Under-15s and the France U19s.
He was eligible for the first of those countries because of his Spanish mother, the second through his father. He could have played for Algeria, too, via his paternal grandparents, Smail and Malika, who moved from the Kabylie region to settle in France in the 1950s.
Enzo, now 30, retired as a player exactly 12 months ago, his achievements across the leagues of Spain, Switzerland and France never quite of a level to interest the managers of Spain, France or Algeria.
But his three brothers have all progressed a little higher up the international ladder in terms of age-group selection and one, Luca Zidane, is poised to win a full cap – as the first from the Zidane clan to represent Algeria.
Quite the five-a-side team the Zidanes could field in the garden of the family home in the suburbs of Madrid.
In one attacking role would be father, immaculately fit and slender at 53 and still, on the evidence of his occasional outings at veterans’ exhibition games, capable of combining the silkiest ball control with the scoring instinct that won a World Cup final with two headers and a Uefa Champions League final with a magnificent long-range volley. In the other forward position would be Enzo.
Behind them would be the assured pairing of Theo, 23, whose 1.96m frame has been a conspicuous feature of Spanish second division club Cordoba’s midfield for the past year or so; and Elyaz, a tall, left-footed defender who is attached to Real Betis. At 19, he is making an impact in their feeder side, Betis Deportivo, who play in Spain’s third tier.
In goal would be Luca, 27, has played more than 150 league matches in the top two divisions of Spain and is currently at second-tier Granada.
The latter three have all played for France up to under-20 level and give their parents regular reasons to travel to Andalusia.
Cordoba versus Granada last March was a bittersweet watch, Theo at the heart of a commanding 5-0 win, but Luca credited with an own goal and obliged to leave the field with injury late on.
Cordoba against Betis Deportivo last month, a pre-season warm-up game, gave Elyaz something to brag to his older brother Theo about, with a surprise 1-0 win.
Congratulations and good luck messages from across the generations of the Zidane family were directed at Elyaz and Luca, both on the brink of threshold moments in international football. Elyaz is in Chile for the U20 World Cup, part of a France squad full of promise.
And Luca is in the frame for a first senior cap for the Desert Foxes. The goalkeeper completed the formalities around his official switch from eligibility for France to Algeria, a change allowed because he has citizenship of both – and indeed of Spain – and has not represented another country at senior level in more than three matches.
Those are broadly the Fifa rules on switching national teams; the same switch would be possible in the future for Theo or Elyaz.
But Luca fills a need in the Algeria set-up and on the horizon are exciting possibilities: An Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco in December, and before then, a chance to stamp Algeria’s ticket to the 2026 World Cup. A win against Somalia next month would confirm their place in those finals.
Luca could well win his first caps in the forthcoming qualifiers – Algeria also face Uganda – given the clear concerns around the keepers who have jostled for No 1 status since the 12-year, 96-cap reign of Rais M’Bolhi came to an end in 2022.
For the last round of internationals, Alexis Guendouz, who in the summer made MC Algers his fifth club in as many years, kept goal, while Anthony Mandrea, of Caen, who were last season relegated from France’s Ligue 2, was dropped. Manager Vladimir Petkovic explained: “I can’t select a player who is in the third division.”
Luca Zidane may currently be at the wrong end of Spain’s second tier – Granada are propping up the table – but he offers a fresh alternative, a CV that includes senior matches for Real Madrid and a mature approach to all the attention that comes with his family name.
“In France, they still look at us as ‘a Zidane’,” Luca told the newspaper AS of his brothers’ experience as professionals. “In Spain, they know us better as the players we actually are, even though while we are young players at Madrid, we tended to be ‘the sons of …’. But I’ve left my own impression at lots of clubs now.”
Time to see how quickly Algeria forms its impressions and admires him for who he is, and not for the surname.
