ALGERIA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - French footballer Zinedine Zidane tours earthquake-hit village of Sidi Daoud

Record ID: 573916

  • Title: ALGERIA: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - French footballer Zinedine Zidane tours earthquake-hit village of Sidi Daoud
  • Date: 12th December 2006
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGIERIA (DECEMBER 11 2006)(REUTERS) THE ARRIVAL OF ZINEDDINE ZIDANE AT THE ALGERIAN AIRPORT HOUARI BOUMEDIENE, WITH HIS MOTHER AND HIS FATHER THIS MORNING, WELCOMED BY THE ALGERIAN MINISTER OF SOLIDARITY OULD ABBAS. SOME PLANS OF JOURNALISTS AND THE ARRIVAL OF ZINEDDINE ZIDANE. VIEWS OF ZINEDINE ZIDANE, HIS MOTHER AND HIS FATHER. SIDI DAOUD, ALGERIA (DECEMBER 11 2006) ZINEDINE ZIDANE AT THE VILLAGE OF SIDI DAOUD LOCATED AT BOUMERDES ( SITUATED AT 80 KILOMETRES AT THE EAST OF ALGIERS) WHERE HE CONTRIBUTED WITH DONATIONS TO REBUILD A SCHOOL DESTROYED BECAUSE OF THE EARTHQUAKE OF THE 21ST OF MAY 2003. THE SCHOOL IS NAMED "05 JUILLET" (5TH OF JULY ) (DATE OF THE ALGERIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY). VIEWS INSIDE THE SCHOOL WITH PUPILS AND TEACHERS ACCLAIMING THE NAME OF ZINEDINE ZIDANE. CROWD WAITING FOR ZINEDINE ZIDANE OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL. BENI AMRAN, ALGERIA (DECEMBER 11 2006) ZIDANE VISITS THE POLYCLINIC OF BENI AMRAN SITUATED AT 50 KILOMETRES AT THE EAST OF ALGIERS, WHERE HE CONTRIBUTED WITH DONATIONS TO BUY MEDICAL EQUIPMENTS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE OF THE 21ST OF MAY 2003. ZIDANE VISITING SOME ROOMS AT THE POLYCLINIC WITH THE ALGERIAN MINISTER OF SOLIDARITY. ZINEDDINE ZIDANE AT THE POLYCLINIC. VILLAGER WAITING FOR ZIDANE. ZIDANE'S PROCESSION LEAVING THE VILLAGE ACCOMPANIED BY HIS FANS RUNNING AFTER HIM.
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: People,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA5PLQ7RJU58K0H8QHU1EWEYGXL
  • Story Text: To shouts of "Long live Zidane", French footballer Zinedine Zidane toured an earthquake-hit village east of Algiers on Monday (December 11) on a visit to the heart of rebel country in his troubled ancestral homeland.
    "Zizou", as he is known in France, won a hero's welcome in Sidi Daoud village where a project he helped to fund has built a school and training centre following an earthquake in 2003.
    "After the quake that devastated the region I felt I should do something to help," Zidane told reporters.
    The 2003 earthquake in the Boumerdes region of northern Algeria killed 2,300 people, 100 of them in Sidi Daoud, and made at least 100,000 homeless.
    The disaster added to the misery of a nation trying to pull itself out of years of Islamist-linked violence that has killed up to 200,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
    Political strife remains a danger for the village because it lies in the Boumerdes district of the Kabylie region, a bastion for Islamist rebels trying to overthrow the government.
    The army and guerrillas clash sporadically in surrounding hills, valleys and forests, albeit at a much lower level than at the height of the bloodshed in the 1990s.
    Zidane shook hands with teachers, administrators and pupils and inspected a classroom adorned with a giant poster of him and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
    Early in the day Zidane, with his mother and father, had arrived at the airport in Algiers. After being welcomed by the Minister of Solidarity.
    Zidane's entourage, including his brother Noredine, later moved on to the village of Beni Amran, where hundreds greeted him chanting: "We love Zidane".
    Security for his visit, which is expected to end on Friday, is especially tight following a bomb attack on a bus carrying foreign oil workers in an Algiers suburb on Sunday that killed one Algerian and wounded nine foreigners.
    It was the first armed attack on expatriates in many years.
    Widely regarded as the finest footballer of his generation, Zidane retired from soccer after being sent off in July's World Cup final for head-butting Italy's Marco Materazzi. Italy defeated France in the final after a penalty shoot-out.
    Zidane's Algerian parents moved in 1962 to the southern French city of Marseille, where he grew up. He has rarely visited Algeria, but he is seen by many here as a symbol of hope in a country where the jobless rate among people under 30 is estimated to be about 70 percent.
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