Trivia

* Zidane's name is of Arabic origin (Algerian Arabic: Zīn ad-Dīn Yazīd Zīdān, Arabic: زين الدين يزيد زيدان‎, transliteration: Zayn-u-Dīn Yazīd Zaydān). Zinedine translates to "the beautiful one of the path" (Arabic Zayn-u-Dīn—from zayn, "beauty", and dīn, "path"). Yazid is a boy's name, sometimes spelled Yazeed (Arabic Yazīd, "one who increases, becoming greater"). Zidane is expressing the overabundance of something that the bearer of name is said to possess, such as talent (Arabic Zaydān—from zayd, "overabundant", and an, "two"). The nickname Zizou was given to Zidane by coach Rolland Courbis while Zidane played for Bordeaux. Yaz is the nickname given to him by his brothers and used by his family and close friends.

* Allegations by members of controversial French right-wing party Front National that Zidane's father was a Harki (an Algerian who fought for the French during the Algerian War of Independence), have been strongly denied by Zidane. He is said to be very proud of his family and his heritage, identifying himself as "first, a Kabyle from La Castellane, then an Algerian from Marseille, and then a Frenchman."

* Zidane is known to be modest, quiet and shy. However, he has occasionally shown a quick temper on the pitch. Besides his controversial offence in the 2006 World Cup final, he received a red card and a two-game suspension for stomping on Saudi Arabia's team captain Fuad Amin in the 1998 World Cup – allegedly in response to an insult – and headbutted Jochen Kientz in a 2000/2001 Champions League match between Juventus and Hamburger SV, for which he was also sent off.Overall, he was sent off 14 times in his career. He is one of four players that have been sent off in a World Cup final, one of two players that have been sent off during two different World Cup tournaments (the other player being Cameroon's Rigobert Song) and the only player ever to be sent off during extra time of a World Cup final.

* Zidane has had sponsorship deals with companies including Adidas, Lego, Danone, Generali, France Télécom, Orange, Audi, Ford and Christian Dior. Sponsorship deals like these earned him €8.6 million on top of his €6.4 million Real Madrid salary in the 2005-06 season, making him the sixth highest paid football player. In 2004, Forbes magazine had named him the 42nd highest paid athlete in the world at earnings of US$15.8 million a year.

* Zidane is the President for Life for Nouvelle Vague , a club in Marseille coached by his brother Farid (فريد).

* In 2001, Zidane was appointed as the United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador for the fight against poverty.

* Since 2000, Zidane has been consistently voted one of the most popular French personalities in newspaper polls. He was voted most popular in 2000, 2003, 2004 and 2006, second most popular in 2005, and fourth most popular in 2001 and in 2002.