French football reached its peak when they managed to become the 1998 World Cup champions. Two years later, it was the turn of the European Cup that came to the country with its capital in Paris. There are many extraordinary names in the Rooster squad, including Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Fabien Barthez, to the talented player who plays on the left, Bixente Lizarazu.
Bixente Lizarazu is arguably the best left-back of his time. His name can even be compared to the Brazilian bullet, Roberto Carlos. Lizarazu has complete abilities as a full-back. He’s fast, has a magic pass, and has incredible foot power when he shoots hard at goal.
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Lizarazu started his professional career with Girondins de Bordeaux. He joined the club at the age of 15. However, Lizarazu was considered unsuitable to be a professional football player because of his weak physique. Getting a statement like that later didn’t necessarily make Lizarazu back off. He even continued to fight hard to be able to prove to the coach.
As a result, he who received advice from coach Didier Couecou to fill the left-back position also managed to carry out his duties well. Lizarazu performed brilliantly and was able to book that position in the first team.
Lizarazu was part of the relegated Bordeaux team. However, he persisted and brought the club back up to the highest caste. Together with Zinedine Zidane at that time, Lizarazu managed to make Bordeaux’s performance increase sharply. He successfully brought the club to finish in fourth position and stayed for the next three seasons.
During his time playing for Bordeaux, Lizarazu appeared in 101 games and scored 15 goals. His career there is quite brilliant. Therefore, he was then signed by Athletic Bilbao. Despite being a French citizen, Lizarazu has Basque blood so he can play for the club.
As is known, he comes from the North Basque region which entered the territory of France. The North Basques don’t have big teams like Bilbao or Sociedad. They are more synonymous with the rugby team. Aviron Bayonnais and Biarritz Olympique are two of the most popular teams in the European rugby scene.
Therefore, since childhood, Lizarazu was more synonymous with France and later joined one of the teams in that country. But his luck in Bilbao was not at all supportive. He was repeatedly injured badly and only played 16 times. Lizarazu, who performed poorly, only lasted for one season.
Even so, Lizarazu’s poor performance at Bilbao is not only the result of injury problems that often plague him. More than that, he received various threats from groups that were considered terrorists. Reportedly, Lizarazu received threats from the Basque separatist group, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). They asked Lizarazu for aid for the struggle if they wanted to survive while defending Bilbao.
The threat really made Lizarazu mentally down, and made him completely uncomfortable. After that, he decided to leave Bilbao and join Bayern Munich. Lizarazu hopes the move to Germany will distance her from Europe’s most feared terrorist group.
But apparently, he still gets threats often. In 2001, when he was included in the list of the French national team that played against Spain in Valencia, the dangerous group continued to pose a threat to Lizarazu. Not wanting to take a big risk, he hired a bodyguard while in the Matador Country.
After cooperating with the French and Spanish police, Lizarazu can rest easy because in the end the party concerned has been arrested. Despite the terrible experience he had, Lizarazu was still able to perform perfectly with the French national team. Right after being sold to FC Bayern, Lizarazu managed to donate the World Cup trophy and also the European Cup for Les Bleus.
In addition, he also got all the trophies available when defending The Bavaria. The proof, from the Bundesliga trophy, the DFB-Pokal, to the European Champions League trophy, made it into his cupboard. Lizarazu then earned the nickname as a left-back who collected many trophies.
More than that, he is also one of the best players FC Bayern has. After getting many trophies, Lizarazu returned to France and joined Marseille. But he failed to present any title. Still feeling capable of playing at the highest level, Lizarazu decided to return to FC Bayern. There was something unique in his second period with Bayern. Lizarazu wears the number 69 shirt. Many see the number as strange because it is rare for players to wear the number 69.
After causing a commotion, Lizarazu then gave a statement. According to him, the number was chosen because it represents the fact that he was born in 1969, has a height of 169 centimeters, and weighs 69 kilograms.
Until exactly in 2006, Lizarazu decided to retire from the world of football, right at the age of 37 years. Shortly after hanging up his boots, Lizarazu decided to become a Jiu Jitsu athlete. In 2009, Lizarazu won the European Jiu Jitsu competition in the lightweight blue belt division. Now, Lizarazu has a black belt in jiu jitsu. Until now, he admits that he still practices Jiu Jitsu quite often at his residence. He also regretted that he had only been active in the world of martial arts when he no longer played football.
“Jiu Jitsu doesn’t focus too much on knocking out opponents. Jiu Jitsu is a very technically complex martial art and I really like it,” “I have been actively involved in the world of jiu jitsu for 10 years and I really like it. My experience in the world of martial arts will certainly be very useful if I am still actively playing football,” said Lizarazu (via FourFourTwo, 2020)
Not only jiu jitsu, Lizarazu also likes to do various other sports. Some of them are cycling, surfing, and skiing. No less important, he was also seen several times having a job as a football analyst.
ASL
