Zidane-inspired Gundogan looking to banish Germany’s World Cup anguish

As a group of people huddled around a television set in the corner of a Turkish restaurant one late night in July, 1998, a young Ilkay Gundogan observed intently.

It was to be his first exposure to the World Cup.

He was seven, blissfully unaware of how football’s historic competition between nations would eventually play a major part in his life and career.

Inspired by two goals from Zinedine Zidane, hosts France beat favorites Brazil 3-0 that night at a euphoric Stade de France in Paris.

“We were on holiday with my parents and my brother, and we stopped before we entered the hometown where my grandparents lived in Turkiye,” recalled Gundogan.

“We always stopped at a local restaurant at night and had soup there. I remember it had one of those old TVs in the corner and the game was on and people were watching. So that was my first memory connected to the World Cup.

“That game in 1998 there was Zidane and then came his (volleyed) goal against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League final a few years later for Real Madrid, so he was someone I remember and that everyone looked up to.

“He was one of the footballers I was idolizing in terms of how beautiful he played the game.”

It was to be eight years before Gundogan would again be captivated by the game’s showpiece.

Curiously, it was at the 2006 tournament in his homeland Germany and where Zidane infamously went from beauty to the beast.

The talismanic midfielder scored, but was then sent off in the final for a headbutt into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi in an off-the-ball incident.

Italy won 5-3 on penalties as the game finished 1-1 after extra-time.

By then Gundogan, born and settled with his family in the city of Gelsenkirchen, was simply