Zinedine Zidane nearly moved to the Premier League many years ago but was brutally rejected, it has emerged.
Zidane is one of the most gifted players in football history, winning the World Cup with France in 1998 and the Ballon d'Or in the same year.
But incredibly, it's been revealed that 'Zizou' could have been plying his trade in England two years prior - with an agent claiming he offered Zidane's services when he was something of an unknown quantity.
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After playing for Manchester City and Crystal Palace, Barry Silkman became an agent and worked with the likes of Jaap Stam, Micah Richards, Tomas Soucek and Yakubu.
But Zidane was also well on his radar and claims to have become aware of his abilities when he was turning out for Bordeaux in the French top flight.
Silkman claims to have personally recommended him to Newcastle United boss Kevin Keegan, who he had dealt with on a number of occasions.
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However, according to Silkman, Keegan's main scout did not rate Zidane too highly and said he wasn't even good enough for a low Championship side.
Zidane would go on to play in black and white stripes, though, signing for Serie A giants Juventus at the end of the season after Newcastle passed on bringing him in for £1.2 million.
“I was alerted to the talent of a 24-year-old attacking midfielder at Bordeaux and I went along to watch him," Silkman wrote in his book The Not-So Secret Football Agent’.
“His name was Zinedine Zidane, and it took me about five minutes to decide that this guy was going to be something very special.
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"I had brought a number of good players to Newcastle United under Kevin Keegan’s reign and every one of them was a success, so Zidane felt like the perfect fit for a Keegan team.
"It was 7 January, 1996, and I told Kevin he could sign Zidane for £1.2million – it was a steal.
"I begged Kevin to sign him, but in the end he told me his chief scout thought he wasn’t good enough and years later, Kevin told me he should have listened to me instead of his scout."
He added: "Zidane eventually signed for Juventus and the rest is history.
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"I wish I’d kept the fax that was sent to me from Newcastle United where the chief scout stated, ‘Silky has grossly overrated the player. At best he is good enough for Wolves, who are bottom of the Championship at present’.
“I think Zidane was slightly better than the players in struggling Wolves team!”
At the time, Newcastle were sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table - only to lose the crown to Manchester United despite being 12 points clear at one stage of the run-in.
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Zidane later became a Galactico with Real Madrid in 2001 in a world-record £46 million switch, going on to win the Champions League four times as both a player and manager,
Topics: Premier League, Zinedine Zidane, Newcastle United, Juventus, Real Madrid
Josh Lawless