My Sporting Hero: Christophe Berra on Zinedine Zidane

Welcome to a new episode of the My Sporting Hero podcast, part of Nutmeg FC. The home of brilliant football stories – made in Scotland.

So far this month, Nutmeg FC subscribers have enjoyed....

• Mixu Paatelainen telling us why his dad Matti is his sporting hero.

• Iain Macintosh’s nine things you never knew about Duncan Ferguson

• Adam Clery on how Scotland’s Lewis Ferguson became Bologna’s tactical lynchpin

Great content still to come for paid subscribers includes....

• The Slow Match Report from Daniel Gray reporting on the Premiership playoff final.

• Stephen McGowan’s three-part investigation into plastic pitches in Scottish football.

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This time on My Sporting Hero, our guest is Christophe Berra.

Christophe was a central-defensive stalwart for Hearts during two spells at Tynecastle, which bookended eight years south of the border at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town.

He retired from playing three years ago and is currently based in Alabama, as interim head coach of professional outfit Huntsville City.

His sporting hero is legendary French midfielder Zinedine Zidane

Christophe Berra

I have French blood from my dad, and my earliest memories were of Zidane playing for Juventus, Real Madrid and France. He was the figurehead of French football – a football icon and an all-round classy guy.

I came into football late. I played when I was younger, but only for my primary school. I would play at my uncle’s farm – he had a field with wooden goals, but it wasn’t until under-12s that I started playing competitive football. I wouldn’t say I was a fanatic. Through my dad being French, I would watch the French national team, and I do remember Zidane on Football Italia playing for Juve.

Zidane in action during the 1998 World Cup final victory over Brazil. The French talisman scored with two bullet headers