To understand Zidane’s popularity, one need only set his modesty and attention to others against the arrogance and indifference that characterize the behavior of so many other celebrities, including football players. At a time when, in France as in the rest of the world, the chasm between the elite and ordinary people has never been so wide, when the smugness of the affluent has never been so cruelly felt by the less fortunate, Zidane, a son of despised immigrants, became an international star, and yet preserved the simplicity of his origins.