Zinedine Zidane had no doubts when naming the player in world football with a left foot as good as Lionel Messi

Former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane once compared one of his players’ left foot to Lionel Messi’s.

Zidane, 52, is a legend in the Spanish capital having played for and managed the club.

The Frenchman won six major honours as a player at Madrid before going on to manage the club twice – between 2016-18 and 2019-21.

During his managerial tenure, he secured the historic feat of winning three consecutive Champions League crowns – in 2016, 2017 and 2018 - as well as lifting two La Liga titles just to name a few of his many achievements.

As most Madrid managers do, he had the pleasure of managing several world-class players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Toni Kroos and Vinicius Junior.

But it was a surprise player who claimed Zidane compared his left foot to that of Lionel Messi.

And given Zidane’s previous comments about Messi, 37, when speaking with Adidas last year, this is the highest of praise.

“No, it's only one word: magic," Zidane said about Messi.

"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 all the people who like football, and all these players who are different, I think he’s magic, magic in the sense that before receiving the ball, he already knew what needed to be done.”

Surprisingly it was Marco Asensio who revealed that Zidane had compared him to the former Barcelona man.

Marco Asensio and Zinedine Zidane (Credit:Getty)

“Zidane told me that since Messi, he had never seen a left foot like mine," Asensio told Spanish radio station COPE ahead of Real Madrid’s Champions League group stage fixture against Greek team Apoel Nicosia in September 2017.

"I was a little impressed because Messi is a piece of a footballer."

At the time, Asensio was tipped to become one of Madrid’s key players, but he struggled with injuries throughout his time at the Santiago Bernabeu.

A cruciate ligament tear saw him miss 45 matches in the 2019/20 campaign, stalling his progress at the club.

In July 2023, he signed for PSG after his contract expired in Madrid. And once again in November of the 2023/24 campaign was out for over two months, this time due to a foot injury.

However, this season he has managed to stay injury-free and could feature in the Ligue 1 side’s Champions League game against Stuttgart on Wednesday evening.