{"id":294806,"date":"2023-11-09T23:25:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T23:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=294806"},"modified":"2023-11-09T23:25:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T23:25:25","slug":"messi-meets-zidane-at-inter-miami-for-a-career-spanning-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/messi-meets-zidane-at-inter-miami-for-a-career-spanning-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi meets Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Lionel Messi meets Zinedine Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview &#8211; as the Real Madrid legend tells Barcelona&#8217;s greatest star: &#8216;I wish we played together&#8217;<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane briefly crossed paths in La Liga<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>But they were never once teammates in their gilded careers\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Man Utd are NOT good enough to have a ball-playing keeper &#8211; It&#8217;s All Kicking Off<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane have sat down for an extended conversation, with the Frenchman telling the Inter Miami star that it&#8217;s a &#8216;pity&#8217; that they never lined up together.<\/p>\n<p>Zidane took in a Miami game back in September, as he was reunited with former Real Madrid teammate (and Miami co-owner) David Beckham.<\/p>\n<p>But the ex-Juventus and Madrid star never got the chance to play with Messi &#8211; something he apparently now regrets.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s a pity that we couldn&#8217;t play together,&#8217; he said in the chat facilitated by\u00a0adidas. &#8216;This is the moment for me to pass you the ball.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>He added at a different point, &#8216;Today is a very important day for me because I can tell him how much I admire him&#8230; I think it is magic, pure magic.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/17\/77615019-12731053-Zinedine_Zidane_and_Lionel_Messi_sat_down_for_a_conversation_org-a-27_1699550306671.jpg\" height=\"305\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi sat down for a conversation organized by adidas<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/17\/77614749-12731053-image-a-28_1699550395238.jpg\" height=\"474\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Messi attempts to tackle Zidane in a 2005 game between Barcelona and Real Madrid<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtube.com\/watch?v=CQ8wOnnZiEg%3Frel%3D0<\/p>\n<p>Messi returned the praise, saying,&#8217; I have always admired him and liked him a lot. I followed him a lot in Madrid. And he made made me suffer a lot too because I was from Barcelona.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The pair later exchanged signed Argentina and France shirts.<\/p>\n<p>Zidane played for Los Blancos from 2001-06, while Messi debuted for Barcelona&#8217;s first team in 2004 and spent 17 years at the club.<\/p>\n<p>The pair faced off in El Clasico in 2005, while Messi also frequently went against Zidane as a coach.<\/p>\n<p>The 51-year-old was the manager of Madrid from 2019-21.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Argentine also spoke about the late Diego Maradona, who he looked up to as a kid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/17\/77617159-12731053-image-a-30_1699552703027.jpg\" height=\"372\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Zidane and Messi exchanged signed international shirts at the end of the conversation<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/09\/18\/77617603-12731053-image-a-31_1699553529406.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Antonela Roccuzzo and Lionel Messi with sons Thiago, Mateo and Circo at the Ballon d &#8216;Or 2023 Ceremony<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;During our whole lives, those of us who grew up playing football wanted to be like him,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Although no one was able to be like him, that was our dream and desire, and try to copy what Maradona did.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>And bringing things back to the present, Messi discussed how his sons Thiago, 11, Mateo, 8 and Ciro, 5, are already obsessed with the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;My children love it. The three of them love it. They are passionate about football,&#8217; he said. &#8216;The three of them, all day long.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12731053\/Lionel-Messi-meets-Zinedine-Zidane-Inter-Miami-career-spanning-interview-Real-Madrid-legend-tells-Barcelonas-greatest-star-wish-played-together.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Lionel Messi meets Zinedine Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview &#8211; as the Real Madrid legend tells Barcelona&#8217;s greatest star: &#8216;I wish we <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/messi-meets-zidane-at-inter-miami-for-a-career-spanning-interview\/\" title=\"Messi meets Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Messi meets Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/messi-meets-zidane-at-inter-miami-for-a-career-spanning-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Messi meets Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lionel Messi meets Zinedine Zidane at Inter Miami for a career-spanning interview &#8211; 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