Newcastle United bafflingly turned down the chance to sign Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane in January 1996.
The Magpies were riding high under then-boss Kevin Keegan, having finished inside the top six twice on the bounce following promotion from the second tier in 1992/93, when agent Barry Silkman offered little-known Bordeaux talent Zidane to the north-east outfit.
It’s a signing that could have changed the course of Premier League history and supercharged Newcastle to that elusive ultimate prize, had Keegan and his backroom staff showed a little more faith in Silkman.
Zidane was branded ‘Championship-level’ by Newcastle United
Silkman recounts the tale in his book, The Not So Secret Football Agent, revealing that he was tipped off about the 24-year-old Zidane and went off to Bordeaux to watch him.
Impressed by what he saw, and having already built up an established relationship with those at Newcastle, he immediately got on the phone to St James’ Park to try and set up a deal.
To his shock – and painfully now, in hindsight – the Magpies weren’t interested in stumping up just £1.2million for a player who would go on to become one of the game’s all-time greats.
“I begged Kevin to sign him,” Silkman wrote in his book. “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.
Instead, in July later that year, Zidane moved to Italian giants Juventus, at which point Newcastle may already have been sensing their misstep.
Silkman continued: “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’.”
In FourFourTwo’s opinion, it’s hard to overstate just how big a missed opportunity this was for Newcastle.
People often, understandably, credit Eric Cantona with boosting the fortunes of Manchester United a few years earlier, ushering in a new period of domination.
Looking back, it feels like Zidane, in a Newcastle side already featuring the likes of David Ginola, Les Ferdinand and Rob Lee, could have had a similar, if not even greater impact.
Newcastle finished that campaign in second and repeated the feat the season after. Could Zizou have been the final missing ingredient to get them over the line? It’s a sore one.
