EXCLUSIVE
Emmanuel Petit says Zinedine Zidane delivered the greatest team talk of his career during the 1998 World Cup final.
The France and Real Madrid legend scored twice against Brazil with Petit grabbing the third in Paris as Le Bleus won the biggest prize in world football for the first time.
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Zidane will go down as one of the greatest players of all time. There is a host of legendary names who will admit as much from Ronaldinho, who said he was an idol of his, to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the late Franz Beckenbauer, with Petit acknowledging he was the best player he ever played with and against.
And being a man of few words it meant that when the player affectionately known as 'Zizou' by his teammates spoke, people listened.
Speaking to Andy Goldstein and Darren Bent on talkSPORT Drive, Petit recalled half-time inside the French changing room at the Stade de France in 1998. "He never talks, but in the World Cup final we were so excited and winning the tie 2-0 and were so close to touching the trophy.
“I remember the manager Aime Jacquet smashing the table, he’d never done that before and said, ‘calm down, we’re just at half-time and must come back onto the pitch with the feeling that it’s 0-0’.
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“Then Zizou spoke, like [captain] Didier Deschamps and just said a few words. Because he never talks, that was important for us.
“We needed our leader to have some words because we were losing the plot. We were leading the score and so excited that we could have lost the game."
Asked what Zidane said, Petit recalled: "I can’t remember, but just a few words to say concentrate on what we are doing.
"He just said ‘we were so close to making history. You have no idea. Thousands of peoples – hundreds of thousands of people in history have tried to make history. We have the chance to do that and just 45 minutes to do it’.”
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Petit has played with some legendary figures during his career that has taken in Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona, with players, but named Thierry Henry, his teammate and club and international level as the best he's played with in training. "He was a striker and strikers – even on the training ground – want to score goals. They’re selfish on the pitch and focused and hypnotised by the goal.”
The former midfielder then named his Chelsea teammate Frank Lampard as the angriest player he's played with. "He hates losing games and hates losing in training sessions.
Emmanuel Petit reveals how Arsenal hijacked his transfer to Spurs and accidentally made Tottenham pay for his taxi to Arsene Wenger’s house
"He always played with a winning mentality, never tired of winning games. He was very, very angry when things didn’t turn out the way he wanted."
Discussing Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who Petit played with during his time at Barcelona, he recalled: "We didn’t have the best relationship in Barcelona.
"I respect the player he was, but I’ve got more respect for the manager he is because he transformed the Premier League.”
One man who Petit respects more than most is Eric Cantona.
The Manchester United legend was a key player for France's national team between 1987 and 1995, a time in which a young Petit was making his way in the professional game.
Playing for Monaco under Arsene Wenger at the time, he was part of the side who regularly challenged French giants Marseille to the league and cup, often to no avail.
But in the 1992/93 season controversy struck when Marseille's president Bernard Tapie and general manager Jean-Pierre Bernès contacted three Valenciennes players and bribed them to underperform so that the French giants could stay fresh for their European Cup final match with AC Milan.
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Two Valenciennes players accepted the bribe, however, the third declined and revealed the scandal.
As a result, the league title was taken away from Marseille - and given to Paris Saint-Germain. However, the Parisiens declined it meaning that no winner was crowned in Ligue 1 in 1992/93.
Petit was outspoken on the scandal at the time but got more than he bargained for when he linked up with France's national squad - a group made up largely of Marseille and PSG stars.
But while his life was made difficult on his first senior call-up, Petit revealed it was the Premier League legend who came to his rescue.
“Eric Cantona was a rock and roll player, a rock and roll person.
“I remember because I started with the national team very young, almost 18 years old and I was the only young player in the national team.
“Back in the days with Bernard Tapie at Marseille and with me at Monaco, we used to finish second to them all the time and I remember there were six or seven Parisien players from Paris Saint-Germain and six or seven players from Marseille as well, so 80 per cent of the squad was split between the two biggest clubs in France.
“What I had said about Marseille in the press was that it’s not normal that we had 20 clubs to run a race and if it was a 100m race, Marseille only had to run 80m, you know?
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“It was not fair and I used to say it all the time because the first time I was called into the national team I had trouble with players from Marseille.
“They took me apart and some of them tried to threaten me and I thought, ‘that’s not possible’ in the national team.
“Eric was a bit like the big brother of the team – he was feared by everyone in the team because of his personality and character.
“The same day I was lying on my bed watching the TV and trying to sleep and somebody knocked on my door – I opened the door and I saw Eric Cantona.
“He looked at me and I was very impressed because he’s very impressive, you know!
“He said ‘can I come in’ and I said ‘yes’ so I showed him to a chair and I lay on my bed and he watched the TV with me.
“I thought, ‘he didn’t come to my room just to watch TV with me!’.
“He was silent and then after a couple of minutes he turned to me and said ‘are you okay?’ and I didn’t know what to say, so I said, ‘yes I am’.
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“He said to me ‘you’re a brave man’. I said ‘I don’t know’ and he said ‘yeah, you are. It takes a lot of courage for a man to say what you said and I appreciate that and respect that’.
“He said ‘I don’t like the behaviour of some of the teammates within the team – they tried to impress you and put you under pressure. If you have any troubles with anyone then come to see me and I’ll solve them’ – then he stood up and he left.
“I thought to myself, ‘wow, I have a protector in the team!’”
Petit certainly went on to make his mark with France's national team, winning 63 caps and helping his country to win the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship in 2000.
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He retired in 2004, finishing his career back in London at Chelsea after ending his four-year stay at Arsenal in 2000 and moving to Barcelona. He left the Blues before the Jose Mourinho era at Stamford Bridge began.
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