Zinedine Zidane talking about how much he loves Lionel Messi is just beautiful

When it comes to football, everyone will have their personal favourites. Even so, when it comes to naming the greats of the modern era, the likes of Lionel Messi and Zinedine Zidane are always going to rank pretty high on most lists.

After all, the two men have delivered numerous fantastic moments on the biggest stages time and time again. The Frenchman, for instance, will forever be remembered for scoring what is considered by many as the greatest Champions League final goal of all time. Messi has almost too many fantastic moments to mention, but like Zidane is also now a World Cup status – an achievement which helped him earn a record eighth Ballon d’Or this year.

However, the two never shared the pitch together as teammates, being of different nationalities and playing for rival teams in the form of Real Madrid and Barcelona in the peak years of their careers. With that being the case, we’ve never really been able to get much of a sense of what their relationship is like – if there even is one.

READ MORE:The 26 Players Who Played With Lionel Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo Decide Who’s Better

Messi meets Zidane

Fortunately, in what was an absolute treat for football fans across the globe, the two sat down together recently for Adidas. One clip in particular has already been widely circulated on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

Real Madrid
Games
Goals
Assists
Major Honours

Zinedine Zidane
227
49
68

In the face-to-face interview, Zidane took the opportunity to sing the praises of Messi. Indeed, he was asked to describe the Argentine in a few words. However, he ended up doing more than just that, saying:

“It is just one word: ‘magic’. I mean, Leo and I are not together every day. So today is a very important day for me because I can tell him how much I admire him.

“And I think it is magic, pure magic. Magic in the sense that before receiving the ball, he already knew what needed to be done. And especially for me, as someone who understands football. Watching you [Messi] on the field, I almost knew what you were going to do, you know? It was like a connection. When I see him doing what he does, I say: ‘that’s it’.

“So that’s what people want to see in football. There are few, but not like him. Very few, well… just only one.”

To be fair to Zidane, he isn’t the only person in the world who would lavish Messi with praise if given the opportunity to speak to him in person. Even so, it’s still pretty remarkable to see just how highly the Frenchman thinks of the 36-year-old – especially when he has achieved so much in his own career.

Zidane and Messi will never play in a competitive football match together

And when he speaks about how he always knows what Messi is going to do next whenever watching him play, we can’t help but wish we’d got the opportunity to see that connection come to life in a competitive football match. Sadly, with Zidane now retired and Messi coming to the end of his career, the best we can hope for is to see them together in some kind of legends charity match.

Still, this shouldn’t be a place for complaining. After all, over the years, the duo have given us so many magical moments to enjoy. Even just watching Zidane talk about Messi was pretty special.