Z-Zoo
As a child I played every sport that was ever conceived. I even invented a few games of my own with my fellow neighbors, friends and classmates. We came from an era of creativity. It was easy because we had no technological distractions. I cherished every moment outside in competition with others. The challenge was always there and it was never boring. One sport that I was considerably attracted to was soccer(or football in the rest of the world). Our neighborhood was like a zoo. It was full of wild animals who felt like they were in a cage if they were told to go inside a house. This was considered the worst punishment imaginable. We all had relatively good zookeepers. Our parents let us play and explore and get hurt without much concern or interference. We knew when darkness arrived we had to go back inside the cage, but at least there was a good dinner waiting for us. By then we really were ravenous animals. As I got older, my love for soccer grew, but unfortunately there was not any kind of organized soccer teams or programs in Florida, so I stuck to the sports that were available. When Tampa received a professional soccer team in 1975, I was overjoyed and began watching some of the best players from the rest of the world end their careers in America. Even though they were no longer at their peak, it was incredible that they would come to my area to play. One day, I was most fortunate to be sitting in a restaurant in Tampa, when a man quietly walked in and sat down next to me. It was Pelé, the world's greatest soccer player ever. He was sitting next to me and I was the only one in the restaurant who noticed? Yes indeed. This allowed me to have a conversation with my favorite player, and to this day, he is the only person I have ever asked for an autograph. He was so kind and humble that I decided that I would never bother anyone again for such a trivial item. From that point forward, my interest in soccer grew exponentially. I began watching all the best players in Europe and South America but I always found myself comparing them to Pelé. Until a certain Frenchman arrived on the scene. In the 1998 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane dazzled the world with his penchant for artistic play, precise passing and otherworldly skill. I sat and watched his every move on the pitch and became a lifelong admirer of his play. Why? There were many others who played with equal skill, but here was something about his focus and determination that shined. His parents came from nothing in Algeria and moved to a very dangerous neighborhood in Marseilles, France where he channeled his frustration of being caught between two cultures into a rolling ball in the dirt. This transformation of anger into beauty was a gift to the world. Not only does it show that you can come from nothing and rise to the top of the game, but also it shows how you can use bad circumstances to create good. When Zidane scored two goals in the world cup final and the French National team won the 1998 World Cup, his name would be etched in history as one of the greatest athletes in the world. The French affectionately gave him the nickname Zizou. What a joy it was to watch him play. Every neighborhood zoo had a kid who was better than the rest. In my neighborhood zoo, I was a pretty aggressive animal in competition. I can only imagine being a kid in Zizou's neighborhood. It was the Z-Zoo! Those kids knew long before the rest of the world that Zinedine Zidane was destined for greatness. The Z-Zoo had the Zizou! What an incredible thing it must have been to observe. Even if you were on the losing end, you got to Z him in action!