What happens in a World Cup final can define a player. It can shape a career, a life, a legacy. A moment of excellence or miscalculation accompanies that individual into the misty realms of the distant future.

There are no hard or fast rules when it comes to this, but one detail comes close to being set in stone: that it occurs only once.

Sir Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick. Marco Tardelli’s scream. Roberto Baggio’s spot-kick soaring high to the heavens. Their zenith, or footballing nadir, will forever be a constant companion; what we see beyond their features when we look upon their face.

It typically occurs only once except Zinedine Zidane is an exception. The midfield genius has encountered this truth two times over.

The Fates Converge

Perhaps it’s fitting that this extraordinary and fascinating man and player should twice shake hands with the Fates. It’s certainly apt that one such seminal act saw him blessed by them, the other, cursed.

As ethereal and downright beautiful as his football was, there was always a devil on his shoulder. A demon chipping in with suggestions at the controls.

Let’s begin with the second act, a flash of retribution that will eternally be a chapter in his story that people eagerly flick to, before reading about the multiple league titles and Champions League triumphs, achieved both on the pitch and in the dug-out.

That headbutt.

Provoked by Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final, the feted playmaker planted his head into his opponent’s chest, prompting millions of jaws across the globe to drop to the floor. It brought instant, seismic infamy and a red card, and with France subsequently losing on penalties it could easily have resulted in Zidane being castigated by his nation.

That was usually the way, the unfortunate kismet for those who erred on the biggest of stages.

Yet France united in support for him. Forgave him. On his return to Paris, post-tournament, the country’s president Jacques Chirac led the tributes, saying:

“I want to tell you is that the whole country is extremely proud of you. You have honoured the country with your exceptional qualities and your fantastic fighting spirit”

While the rest of the world focused on the fall from grace, France only saw the balletic, magisterial fare that had guided Les Bleus to the biggest stage in the first place. Zidane won the Golden Ball that summer. He was exceptional throughout.

And unquestionably too, they recalled eight years prior, and the player’s other seminal moment when orchestrating an unforgettable World Cup success, the first in the nation’s history and on home soil too.

That debt of gratitude does not fade in time; it only grows stronger with every passing year.

A hard road taken to paradise

So magnificent was Zinedine Zidane in the 1998 World Cup final it is easy to forget that he was also sent off in that tournament.

In a routine group stage dismissal of Saudi Arabia, a heavy challenge goaded his demon to take the controls and an impetuous stamp brought inevitable consequences.  

France easily prevailed 4-0 so the outcome wasn’t impacted this time but still, missing the best player in the world for two games was hardly ideal for Aimé Jacquet’s side.

“Everyone turned to how do we overcome it - how do we win without Zidane?"

That was his team-mate Lilian Thuram when reminiscing much later about that incredible summer.

And without a shadow of a doubt, Zidane was the best player in the world in that period. That November he won the Ballon d’Or by a landslide. Two months before the World Cup commenced he had guided Juventus to a second consecutive Scudetto, soon after competing with them in a Champions League final.

He was an artistic great at the very peak of his powers, capable of turning hacks into poets with a single spin or deftly touch. He was a talent so substantial that an international team blessed with such luminaries as Desailly, Karembeu and Petit was built around him.

Zizou was football’s Nijinsky, Mozart and King Lear all rolled into one and watching him was a sheer privilege.

"What he can do with his feet, some people can't even do with their hands. Sometimes when he plays with the ball, it seems like he's dancing."

So said Thierry Henry, a magician in his own right.

The Pinnacle of Perfection: French nirvana

Les Bleus navigated a path to the quarter-finals minus their creative catalyst then even with him back and scheming, they struggled to break down a stubborn Italy.

Two hours of stalemate went to pens, one of which was converted by Zidane.

Their semi-final victory over Croatia was just as tight and tense, a late Thuram winner inciting wild celebrations and impromptu parties to break out in Metz and Marseille, Lorient and Lille.

It was an outpouring of joy infused with relief because for the first time ever, France had reached a World Cup final.

Not even their Just Fontaine-inspired team of the Fifties had managed that. Not even the famed ‘Magic Square’ had hit such a rarefied height.

And so to that momentous night, and it’s impossible to know what Zidane was thinking in the build-up to it – a build-up dominated by fluctuating news concerning Ronaldo’s availability for Brazil.

Here was a second-generation Algerian immigrant, the son of a warehouseman, and on his shoulders was the desperate, pronounced hope of a country. He simply had to produce.

Which he did, and then some. It should be basic mathematics that great players reserve their finest performances for the biggest occasions but so often life is not that straightforward. An undervalued full-back becomes the goalscoring hero. Or an injury strikes. That or plainly they are marked out of the game, so sizable is their threat.

Here though, math won out. Zizou was superb. Immaculate. He glided across the turf, resplendent and imperious, linking up play and carving out openings, every touch with a garnish of flair.

He had an aura around him that evening. He was propelled by the Fates.

In the 27th minute Zidane thumped home a header from a Petit corner, his balding dome generating impressive power, as if in preparation for Materazzi’s chest many years on.

On the stroke of half-time he repeated the feat, nodding past Taffarel in nets from another set-piece.

Elsewhere, it was an exhibition. A glorification of his greatness.

Participating in his first World Cup, Zinedine Zidane created a perfect moment in time, one that will define him to the end of it.