The £48m man who hit the big time

Forty-eight million pounds buys you an awful lot in La Castellane. For the boys playing football on the streets of this run-down suburb of north Marseille it's the price not of fabulous yachts or Cote D'Azur villas, but of dreams.

It was in La Castellane, in the shadow of Olympique Marseille's stadium, that Zinedine Zidane, 29, developed the skills that have made him the the world's most expensive player. Today he is Real Madrid's new No5, having moved from Italian giants Juventus after five years which saw him explode on to the world stage and help France win both the World Cup and the European Championship.

Wealth and adulation will greet him in the Spanish capital, where Zidane fever is already in full swing. But the romantic in all football fans hopes that the boys of La Castellane will still regard their childhood friend as one of their own, the same "Zizou" who had trouble affording a decent pair of boots and who could only dream of playing among the game's elite.

He sent his first £500 bonus, earned on making his first team debut at Cannes, straight to his parents, whom he later bought a villa away from their grey council block.

So modest were his material aspirations that when he was given his first car he reportedly mistook the red Renault Clio for a sports car and spent his leisure time cruising it up and down the Croisette.

In his odyssey from Marseille to Madrid, Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, has done more than achieve recognition as another midfield player possessed with sublime skill. He has become a hero among a generation of "Beurs" - French-born children of North African descent - whose life has been a struggle against the prejudice of French society.

So great is Zizou's appeal that young couples of Arab origin now have their wedding pictures taken not at the old Marseille harbour, but in front of the giant advertising hoarding of his face on the coastal road.

Christian Dior chose him as its first male model two years ago and he became a sex symbol. But this father or two boys, Enzo and Luca, remains happily married and always kisses his wedding ring at the start of a match. But why did he choose Spain? His wife Veronique is Spanish and was said to have been homesick. He will only say: "A new challenge is at hand. I was really in the need for something different."