The Impact of Being Compared to Zidane: Marvin Martin’s Experience and Advice

“Being compared to Zidane was too much.” Marvin Martin still hasn’t digested it. Guest of the Génération After show on RMC this Wednesday, November 22, the former professional midfielder returned to the comparisons with the idol of French football. Similarities which started during his first selection for the Blues in June 2011. During a friendly match won in Ukraine (4-1), the man who was then playing at FC Sochaux scored twice and delivered an assist. All in fifteen minutes flat. Something to remember fondly of “Zizou”, also the author of two goals for his first in the French jersey in 1994, against the Czech Republic in Bordeaux (2-2).

“Zidane was my idol”

Flattering comparisons with the 1998 Ballon d’Or, but which did not necessarily help Marvin Martin afterwards… “I didn’t suffer from it, but it doesn’t help, he confirmed. I put myself in a shell. Zidane was my idol. The level of expectations among people was no longer the same. Being compared to Zidane was too much. I had already spent several years in the League 1 but the comparison was enormous. I closed in on myself, that served me more than anything else,” added the man who was only 23 years old during his resounding double in Ukraine.

The former French international (15 caps, 2 goals) continued by noting that today, “we are starting young people ever younger. The problem is that we have to know how to protect them. Sign pro ne must not be an outcome. There are a lot of people who sign and who we don’t really see afterwards. It’s complicated, you have to be mentally strong, even more so with social networks. Before there were several stages, it had to start by making his place to have the right to be in the locker room. It’s going much faster today. You have to be careful,” warned the player who played through Lille, Dijon, Reims, Chambly then Hyères.