“One of the Greatest Athletes of All Time”: Zinedine Zidane Chooses MJ as 1 of the Only 4 Athletes He’d Love to Go to Dinner With

French Football legend Zinedine Zidane recently sat down for an interview with four-time NBA Champion Tony Parker on the SKWEEK Show. Toward the end of the sit-down, Parker wanted to know if the 51-year-old had the opportunity to have dinner with any athlete in the world from any era, who he would choose. Zidane thought about the question for the longest time, before claiming that the person he would love to have dinner with was Mike Tyson.

The former Real Madrid manager revealed that as a child, he regularly woke up late at night to watch Tyson’s fights. 

“I always had something particular with him. Even if you got up and sometimes it lasted one minute. Sometimes you got up at 3 or 4 AM and you got up for one minute and it was over. But that didn’t matter,” he said, claiming that he felt a special connection with the American boxer. Zidane then went on to talk about some of the other athletes he would want to have dinner with. He admitted that the language barrier would be the biggest problem at such a dinner if it really happened.

“It was your idol but for me Jordan was a real athlete. He’s one of the greatest athletes of all time,” Zidane added, effectively giving his take on who his favorite NBA star of all time is. The World Cup Winner then talked about Mohammed Ali and F1 icon Ayrton Senna.

“And same for the greatest, who is no longer with us, Mohammed Ali. There was someone I liked in Formula One a lot, it was Ayrton Senna,” Zidane claimed.

Ali had a 57-5 record and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. The Brazilian F1 star Senna is a former world champion and won 41 Grands Prix during his illustrious career. Hence, Zidane came up with a select list of four sports icons as his choices for the people he would love to have dinner with.

Zinedine Zidane is himself one of the most unique sports icons 

The French Football legend has had an incredible career both as a player and manager. He won the World Cup for his country in 1998 and came ever so close in 2002. 

Zidane was one of the greatest, most magical midfielders to grace the sport of football and went on to create an utterly ridiculous legacy as a manager as well. Zidane became the first and the only manager to win the UEFA Champions League three times in succession during his first stint with Madrid.

Back in 2022, Facebook user The Football Arena shared a post featuring some of the best quotes uttered about the French International by other major athletes. Amongst them was Magic Johnson, who claimed that he, along with Zidane and MJ were in a league of their own.

′′Zidane, it’s me and Michael Jordan reunited,” he had said. Johnson’s quote is only one of the innumerable utterings that prove just how highly Zinedine Zidane was hailed during his playing days.