Zidane’s son switches nationality to play for Algeria national team | OneFootball

Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, son of French idol Zinedine Zidane, has changed his sporting nationality to compete for the Algerian national team, the African country's football federation (FAF) announced this Friday.

“FIFA has officially granted goalkeeper Luca Zinedine Zidane authorization to represent the Algerian national team,” the FAF said in a statement.

Luca Zidane, 27, has been playing for Granada (Spanish second division) since July 2024.

The second son of Zinedine Zidane, he played for France’s youth teams and will now represent the country of his paternal grandparents’ origin.

Discovered by Real Madrid, Luca made his professional debut for the Merengue team in 2018, when his father was the coach, before being loaned for a season to Racing Santander and playing two years at Rayo Vallecano, with whom he achieved promotion to the Spanish top flight in 2021.

Months after the end of his contract with Rayo, he signed with Eibar (second division) in September 2022, where they reunited until he transferred to Granada.

Zinedine Zidane’s family comes from a village in the province of Bouira, which is more than 200 km east of the Algerian capital, Algiers.

The former ‘Bleus’ star has visited Algeria at least twice since retiring in 2006. One of those visits was in December of that same year, at the invitation of then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and he was received as a hero.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.