Zinedine Zidane named Celtic hero as his favourite player

Zinedine Zidane is one of the greatest players in the history of football. The Frenchman would go on to achieve remarkable things in the game. He won both the World Cup and the EURO for France, and also spent time at clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus and Bordeaux. Interestingly, it looks like the icon was a fan of a Celtic hero.

Celtic have had a lot of great players over the years. But their team in the late 1990s and the early 2000s was something special.

One of the key players in that era of Celtic was Lubo Moravcik. The Slovakian legend spent four years playing for the Hoops, a time that he clearly holds close to his heart.

Before that, he spent eight years in France though and was 33 years of age by the time he arrived at Celtic. And his time in French football appeared to catch the eye of Zidane.

Zidane named Celtic hero as favourite player

Peter Martin was talking about the time he had contacted a French media channel about getting footage of some of Lubo’s goals. As reported by 67 Hail Hail, he told PLZ Soccer:

"I got to interview him [Lubo Moravcik] and obviously I was working for STV had to get footage of him.

“So I phoned Canal+ and I said, ’Lubomir Moravcik, played over there, could you send me some goals?’ and he went, ‘How many?’

“And I thought to myself, ‘What?’ and he said there are so many he says, ‘Unbelievable. Left foot, right foot, you name it.’

“And he said I’ve also got an interview with Zinedine Zidane saying he is his favourite player from French football."

Lubo is proof that age is just a number if you are good enough. That mantra is often used when talking about giving a chance to youngsters but it works both ways.

Lubo was 33 years of age by the time he arrived at Celtic and not exactly a household name. But he proved to be a remarkable signing for the Hoops and one can only wonder what kind of career he would have had at Parkhead if he had joined earlier.

One also has to wonder how many quality players clubs pass up the chance to sign these days, just because they are past a certain age. How many Lubos are Celtic missing out on due to their transfer strategy?