Coach backs Zidane’s son for U-16 side

Sep 23, 2010 |

Madrid, Sept. 22: Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said on Wednesday he saw nothing wrong with France legend Zinedine Zidane’s eldest son Enzo playing for the country’s under-16 side.

“If he deserves it, why not?” he told reporters, adding he “had no idea” what Gines Melendez, the coordinator of the under-16 side, planned to do.

Melendez, who is also the coach of Spain’s under-17 side, told French television station TF1 that he planned to call up 15-year-old Enzo, whose mother is Spanish, for the under-16 side.

“We will select him for Spain. We intend to talk to his father and to call him for the month of October,” he said, according to Spanish media reports.

Enzo, named after Zidane's hero, the former Uruguay star Enzo Francescoli, was born in France but has spent the past nine years in the Spanish capital where he is already a star of Real Madrid's youth team.

Earlier this month Zinedine said he would decide which side his son plays for when the teen is called up.

Zidane, who retired from football after his last season with Real and the 2006 World Cup, lives in the Spanish capital with his family.

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