Zidane’s heroics get Algeria off to a flying start

Dubai: Zinedine Zidane was a proud father on Wednesday, as he watched his goalkeeper son's safe hands help Algeria start their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 3-0 win over 10-man Sudan. The legendary French attacking midfielder was at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat, Morocco, to see his son Luca playing in the Algerian goal, and was feted by the crowd every time he was shown on the big screens.

The 1998 World Cup-winner’s son had begun his career with Real Madrid before playing professionally in Spain, mainly in Segunda División with Racing Santander, Rayo Vallecano and Eibar. He represented France at youth international levels – he was part of the France Under-17 squad that won the 2015 Uefa European Under-17 Championship and also featured at the 2015 Fifa U-17 World Cup – before opting to represent his grandfather's country after getting the Fennec Foxes' invitation.

On Wednesday, he was given his chance to shine because of an injury to Alexandre Oukidja, who might have been expected to start otherwise. Riyad Mahrez, who plays for Al Ahli in Saudi Arabia, scored twice and the 20-year-old Ibrahim Maza scored his first international goal for Algeria, one of the tournament favorites, to move top of Group E.

The 27-year-old, who currently plays for Granada in Spain's second tier, was called into action very early on to deny Sudan’s Yaser Awad on a break. Though the Algerians looked confident and played with intensity, the big chances fell at the other end, with Luca Zidane saving again from Awad before Abdel Raouf fired over. The junior Zidane managed to keep the Sudanese attackers at bay for the rest of the match to come away with a clean sheet.

It must have been surreal for the French maestro, watching his son save the day for his ancestral nation. The senior Zidane, who was born in Marseille in Southern France, is the youngest of five siblings born to Algerian parents Smaïl and Malika, who had immigrated to Paris from the village of Aguemoune in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylia in 1953, before the start of the Algerian War.

The family, which had settled in the city's tough northern districts of Barbes and Saint-Denis, found little work in the region, and in the mid-1960s moved to the northern Marseille suburb of La Castellane. In an interview with Esquire magazine, Zinedine Zidane, who also has three other football-playing sons in Theo, Enzo and Elyaz, said: “I have an affinity with the Arabic world. I have it in my blood, via my parents. I'm very proud of being French, but also very proud of having these roots and this diversity.”

It sure looks like Luca Zidane has embraced his Arab roots with as much pride as his famous father.