Zidane, ``The Most Expensive Player In the World``

``Zidane is a player born for the Real Madrid Soccer Club.``

This is what Florentino Perez, the president of the Real Madrid Club who scouted Zidane yesterday paying a transferring fee of 65.534 million dollars (about 85.2 billion won), said at a press conference of Zinedine Zidane (29. France), the `magician in the mid-field` who was playing for Juventus of Italy. It means than he could invest more money to scout Zidane.

This kind of astronomical transferring fee is the most expensive amount outnumbering the 56 million dollars (72.8 billion won) the Real Madrid paid to bring Luis Figo (Portugal) last year. The annual salary for Zidane is also 5 million dollars (6.5 million won) for four years, an exceptional treatment, and there will be a lot other `extra money` including sponsorship fees for Zidane. It is the very best treatment for the current best star-player in the world deserving attention from all around of the world.

Who is Zidane? He is the player with a frame of 185 cm, 78 kg, who held everybody spellbound with his agile speed, fantastic dribbling ability, and accurate passing ability at the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2000.

Without Zidane, it is unthinkable for France to win the two tournaments and to take the 1st place in the soccer world ranking. That is the very reason that president Perez scouted him by any means saying, ``It is reasonable for the best club to have the best player.``

For the same reason, the club Juventus tried their best to keep Zidane. The Juventus club regretted saying, ``We appreciate Zidane for making our team the best. It is regretful to loose the world best player.``

Zidane stated that the direct motivation was to aim for a higher goal rather than to stay comfortably at a same place saying, ``I want to achieve much more for upcoming 4 years than I have achieved for last 5 years.``

Zidane, who was selected twice as `the world player of the year` by FIFA in 1998 and 2000, has had a strong desire to win the Europe Champions League. He, who transferred to the Juventus after the team won the 1996 Champions League, has not achieved his dream to conquest Europe for last 5 years. That is why he moved to the Real Madrid, the best club in the 21st century that won the Europe Champions League 9 times. His Spanish wife Veronice, who had persuaded him by saying ``I want to live in my homeland``, played a great role.

Zidane, an Algerian French who was born in a poor neighborhood in Marseille, France, has become the richest `soccer businessman` in the world. It will be interesting to see whether he will accomplish his unachieved dream in Spain, the `El Dorado of soccer`.

It is forecasted that by having Zidane, the Real Madrid, a club that won 28 Spanish League championships, is to open an `invincible era` with its world strongest attacking lineup consisted of Zidane, Luis Figo, and Raul Gonzalez.

Yang Jong-Koo yjongk@donga.com