Zinedine Zidane

Beneath the elegance and the ice-cold vision on the ball, Zinedine Zidane carries a Cancer Sun, the father shining through the sign of the mother: a deeply emotional, sentimental, protective heart that guards its softness inside a crab's shell. Known everywhere as Zizou, the son of Algerian immigrants in Marseille became a national hero in 1998 when he scored twice in the final and won France the World Cup, a triumph honoured with the Legion of Honour. That Cancer Sun sits in his second house of values and resources, and the family, the homeland and the money it drew were all bound up in his rise, from Cannes and Bordeaux to a world-record move to Real Madrid. His Moon in Scorpio is the emotional volcano beneath the calm surface, the phoenix whose feelings run to extremes where anger can become violence: a signature the world saw in the 2006 final headbutt, even as he took the tournament's Golden Ball. In the sixth house of daily discipline it made his craft an obsession honed through relentless service. A Taurus Ascendant gave him the regal, immovable poise of the bull. A natal chart maps temperament; it never excuses a single choice. As a manager he won three straight Champions League titles.