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Samir Nasri
Samir Nasri looked to tick all the boxes when it came to dubbing him as Zidane 2.0. Algerian descent, attacking midfielder, silky skills on the ball and a temperament issue (Yes, you cannot be Zidane’s heir without a short fuse).
But ultimately, as the player himself stated- “There’s only one Zidane just as there was only one Platini.”
Nasri came into his own as soon as Franck Ribery departed from Marseilles leaving the reigns of team’s creativity to Nasri. The midfielder was adept at playing a number of roles in the midfield leading to his move to Arsenal.
The move to English league solidified his image as a creative player with exceptional close control skills and eye for that defense splitting pass.
But whatever good Nasri has been doing on the field has been nullified with what happened off it, particularly in terms of his international career.
Having already announced his retirement from international football this year, it really leaves lot to conjectures as to if he could ever be as influential as the other Marseille-born Algerian that he was touted to take over.
Jeremy Menez
Menez would surely one up Zidane for the Bad boy image that he has cultivated but for consistency not so much. His ability to play anywhere in attack and his skills on the ball made him stand out from the crowd leading to the obvious comparisons.
But Menez’s career has mostly been a highlight reel of his unwillingness to curb down on his “youthful exuberance”, case in point being his latest ban for insulting a referee.
It is instances like these that have seen his career nosedive from a prospective Les Bleus regular to a player looking to revive his career moving to various clubs in order to get his French career back on track.
His initial display at Sochaux caused ripples enough to tempt even Sir Alex Ferguson to consider signing him for United. The talent was no doubt there to be seen but talent is not the only thing that matters, sometimes temperament also has a say in what kind of player one turns out to be.
Menez slowly saw his value well and truly stumbling as he started out on a journey into senior football with Monaco, Roma, and PSG some of the stops where he was peripheral at most.
Menez has had issues and a variety of them, from his selfishness to his indiscipline but the sorry fact remains that his precocious talent, that generation 87 spark has been on and off for majority of his career.
Bruno Cheyrou
Bruno Cheyrou is not the brightest to have made his claim for Zidane’s throne but perhaps the unluckiest to see his reputation torn to pieces due to the comparison.
Signed by French manager Gerard Houllier for Liverpool, the manager's claims of unraveling the next Zidane affected the career path for Cheyrou.
It is not that he was not talented enough for a successful future; with a solid goal to match ratio for his previous club – Lille, the potential was always there.
But a burgeoning Premier League slowly overtaking Spanish and Italian league, was too much for him to live up to the expectations once you have been adjudged as the next Zidane.
With a lackadaisical showing in the Premier League, the French midfielder was shipped back to France by the new Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez and ultimately sold to Rennes.
