For millions of young football-lovers, the French soccer star Zinedine Zidane is a powerful role model. So when the EU was looking for sportsmen to front a campaign against smoking in 2002, who better than "Zizou" to bang home the message, "Feel free to say no"?
It is hard to imagine Zidane doing something similar in 2006. A few days ago, a long-lens photograph captured him feeling free to say yes, as he sneaked a crafty fag before the World Cup semi-final against Portugal. Eyes closed, cheeks squeezed in tight, index finger stroking his upper lip, he seemed to be in heaven. Did it do him any harm? Well, it may have knocked two minutes off his life, it certainly did not help the campaign, but it did not stop him dominating the midfield to see France through to the final.
However outraged anti-smokers might be, Zizou's "betrayal" must be put in context: the fag-loving footballer is just following a long and noble tradition. Back in 1998, the pro-smoking group Forest had no trouble finding enough players for an all-smoking fantasy team: Dino Zoff, Socrates, Gerson, Jack Charlton, Frank Leboeuf, Jimmy Greaves, David Ginola, Osvaldo Ardiles, Malcolm Macdonald, Bobby Charlton, Robert Prosinecki. Sub: Gazza. Coach: César Luis Menotti.
For me, sport and smoking have always been synonymous. My first cigarette was at Manchester City v Carlisle, 1974. My uncle insisted. "You're old enough to suffer at Maine Road, son, you're old enough to smoke a cigarette." We lost, of course. For 30 years since, City has been associated with smoking and suffering. We were managed by Big Malcolm Allison, rarely seen without a fat cigar in his mouth. This was the 1970s - a decade in which the drooping cigarette and drink in hand signified suave glamour and sex appeal rather than cancer, halitosis and heart disease. English football's most notorious smoker, however, was probably Stan Bowles. By 1983 he was downing a bottle of vodka and 80 cigarettes a day.
An aged but reputable study of 1,559 English professional footballers showed that cigarette smoking was much lower than the national average - only 5% admitted to it. Perhaps I have just spent too much time with the wrong type of footballer. There is a photo of me and Gazza puffing away like there is no tomorrow. The thing I love about it is the way he is sucking every last bit of "goodness" out of the fag.
Two of the world's greatest ever footballers chain-smoked their way through their careers - Johann Cruyff and Diego Maradona. On a good day, Maradona stuck to tobacco. Recently, I met another World Cup winner, Jack Charlton. He called to pick me up from Newcastle station, and proceeded to light fag after fag as he drove us home. I had to admire the man, although even I felt nauseous by the journey's end.
Cricket, too, has found room for hardened smokers. Ian Botham naturally enjoyed a cigar and a spliff, and never understood what the fuss was all about. Last year, I was trailing Shane Warne and came across his car parked at Hampshire cricket club, the passenger seat piled high with empty crisp packets and cartons of 200 B&H. Warney, a 40-a-day man, has at least tried to stop. After accepting $200,000 from Nicorette chewing gum to quit for four months, he was caught smoking by a teenage paparazzo. Our own cricketing hero, Fred Flintoff, celebrated the 2005 Ashes victory with a 32-hour binge that took in a good deal of tobacco (but far more alcohol). Amazingly, he was almost standing at the end of it.
Some sports stars smoke for good reason - or at least convince themselves that they do. Jockeys smoke to keep their weight down. (This was also Gazza's excuse.) Cyclists used to claim that smoking "opened up their lungs", and there was a time when even racers in the Tour de France could be spotted sharing a cigarette in the saddle. As for three-time Australian national road champion John Trevorrow, he simply could not give up smoking. His team director saw this as an unmissable opportunity, and found him a tobacco sponsor. In 1981, Trevorrow was paid to pose at the beginning of every stage of the Tour of Italy with a burning cigarette in his mouth.
Which leads us to another reason to smoke: advertising money. The cricketer Denis Compton helped to flog Condor tobacco, Beefy Botham recommended Hamlet, Fred Perry was inspired by New White Owl cigars, while the baseball legend Joe DiMaggio used to claim that every smoker should smoke Chesterfield.
Times have changed, of course, and smoking stars such as Zidane are in the minority. But retirement beckons, and perhaps he will find more like-minded company on the golf course. Darren Clarke (who spends an estimated £25,000 a year on cigars), Tiger Woods and Jesper Parnevik would all be happy to join him for a fairway smoke. Or if he doesn't fancy cigars and golf, he could always befriend fellow cigarette smoker and Wimbledon nearly-man Tim Henman. Actually, that might just give him the incentive he needs to quit.
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