44 July 2022 FourFourTwoART IS
LIFE
ZInEDInE
ZIDAnET
he Picture of Dorian Gray
controversy in the early 1890s that Oscar attracted such
Wilde wrote a preface to defend his only
novel’s reputation. That prologue has
come to be as famous as the work it precedes
as a manifesto for art for art’s sake, praising
something utterly useless as long as its
beauty can be admired intently.
Take a look at Zinedine Zidane’s list of club
honours and your first reaction is probably
disappointment. In the modern era of Lionel
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, three league
titles, one Champions League, one Ballon
d’Or and a goal every five-and-a-bit games is
meagre. Sure, France’s 1998 World Cup and
Euro 2000 victories are impossible without
Zidane, but at club level, the bare figures are
far from earth-shattering. Yet Zidane exists
in the bracket of all-time greats with Johan
Cruyff, George Best and Alfredo Di Stefano.
Why? Art. Such was Zizou’s ludicrous talent
and leonine grace that, in his late ’90s and
early noughties prime, the man with the
monk’s haircut produced as close to art for
art’s sake as any footballer in history. You
can’t count the balletic roulettes which
extricated him from tight situations, the