Where are they now? Seven players dubbed ‘the next Zinedine Zidane’

Such is the legacy left by Zinedine Zidane on French football, the most promising players produced by the country often have to live with the pressure of being labelled ‘the next Zidane’.

Of course, there is and only ever will be one Zizou, and former Liverpool and Arsenal men are among those who have understandably failed to live up to that tag.

We’ve taken a look back at seven players compared to the great man at a young age, and how they subsequently fared in their respective careers.

Mourad Meghni

Thanks to his Algerian heritage and performances in France’s Under-17 World Cup victory, Meghni was given the nickname “petit Zidane”.

Before he had even made his senior debut, Meghni swapped France for Italy by leaving Cannes for Bologna. But he failed to find any consistency in his performances for either Bologna or Lazio, and he was an unused substitute in the latter’s 2009 Coppa Italia victory – the main honour of his career.

After switching his international allegiance to Algeria in 2009, Meghni moved to Qatar two years later and retired after leaving Algerian outfit CS Constantine in 2017.

Bruno Cheyrou

“I don’t make comparisons with Zidane lightly,” said Gerard Houllier upon signing Cheyrou for Liverpool from Lille, seconds before making quite a grand comparison between the two players.

“Bruno has the same kind of touch and style that Zidane has. There’s a lot of similarities between the two when they’re on the ball.

“The difference is that Zidane is 30-years-old and has a wealth of experience while Bruno is 24 and playing abroad for the first time.”

That didn’t turn out to be the only difference. Cheyrou made 48 largely unimpressive performances in all competitions for the Reds before Houllier was binned off and the midfielder followed suit, joining Bordeaux and Marseille on loan and playing out the majority of his career back in Ligue 1.

To add insult to injury, Cheyrou wasn’t even the best midfielder in his family, with younger brother Benoit winning a French title with Marseille to go with four domestic cups and three consecutive seasons in Ligue 1’s team of the year.

In January 2022, the former Liverpool man joined Lyon to work as a scout and technical advisor.

READ: Liverpool, Gerard Houllier & a summer which reshaped English football

Anthony Le Tallec

Houllier should have known better than compare Cheyrou with Zidane given only a year earlier he had signed another player struggling to live up to such…