Another splendid exhibition or rather art installation is still visible at the Philharmonie de Paris. It focuses on one player alone: Zinedine “Zizou” Zidane, captain of France’s first World Cup winning team in 1998.

The installation shows the film “Zidane a 21st century portray” by Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon. In total 16 screens show the film in a darkened room, enabling visitors to wander around and watch different scenes, taking in the movements of Zidane, the development of the game and, of course, the noise: the music by Mogwai and the noise inside the ground, i.e. the spectators but also the brief conversations on the pitch as well as Zidane’s utterings to himself.

As a longtime observer of football, it is staggering to see the game’s slowness at that period. The difference to 2023/24 is telling. The build-up of attacks is much slower and the passing game of Real Madrid was sloppy at times, not to mention their defending. It was almost the end of the ‘Galacticos’; that ensemble of stars like David Beckham, Michael Owen, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Zidane and Roberto Carlos, which did not work all too well on the pitch but sold well off it.

Showing the film on several screens is in line with recent developments in watching sports and football in particular: the second screen is never far away, be it for statistics or be it to share thoughts and ideas on various platforms. Also, the number of cameras allows us to see the game from different angles. However, the absence of VAR is refreshing; here it could have helped though.