Zidane to retire when contract expires

Zinedine Zidane confirmed today that he plans to retire when his contract at Real Madrid expires in 2005.

The French playmaker, who will be 33 when he hangs up his boots, was signed by Madrid from Juventus for a world-record fee of £46.5m (€65.8m) in 2001.

His decision seems premature, given he has never played better than at present, but Zidane has made the claim before and he is set on going out on a high.

He insists there will be no talking him out of the decision.

Zidane is currently in China with Real Madrid on their three-week pre-season tour, and he said: “I have two years left to my contract with Real Madrid and until then I will play as well as possible, whatever the competition.

“After those two years I will retire.”

His final matches for France are set to come at next summer’s European Championships in Portugal, given that he has ruled himself out of the 2006 World Cup.

Zidane was a member of the France teams which won the World Cup in 1998 and European Championships in 2000 and has 82 caps for France, having scored 22 goals for Les Bleus.

With Madrid he has won the Champions League in 2002 and Primera Liga this year.

He started his career in Cannes in 1988 before moving to Bordeaux four years later. His next stop was Juventus where he won the Serie A title in 1997 and 1998, before the invitation to join Madrid’s ‘Galacticos’ proved impossible to resist.