Jean-Luc Sassus, Zidane's Cannes teammate, would have turned 67 this Sunday

French football remembers this Sunday Jean-Luc Sassus, who would have celebrated his 67th birthday. The former French international died on May 22, 2015, at the age of 52 from a heart attack, leaving behind a career marked by AS Cannes and the great PSG of the 1990s.

A native of Tarbes, Sassus wore the AS Cannes colors from 1986 to 1992, playing 190 matches and scoring 13 goals. It was there that he crossed paths with a young Zinédine Zidane, spotted during a Mediterranean League training camp and who arrived on the Côte d’Azur at age 15. Promoted to the first team in May 1989 by Jean Fernandez, Zidane had two promising seasons with the Dragons (6 goals, 13 assists), benefiting from the experience of Luis Fernandez and Sassus’s talent on the right flank. The two men shared 67 matches together in the Cannes shirt, making Sassus Zidane’s most frequent teammate at Cannes.

In the summer of 1992, their paths diverged geographically but crossed seven more times over four years, until Zidane left for Juventus. While “Zizou” — a nickname given by Rolland Courbis — lit up Ligue 1 with Girondins de Bordeaux (best prospect in 1994, best player in 1996, first France cap in August 1994), Sassus also experienced the peak of his career at PSG.

A reliable right-back in a prestigious squad, he played alongside Bernard Lama, Alain Roche, Ricardo, Vincent Guérin, Valdo, George Weah and David Ginola. With the Rouge et Bleu, he won the 1993 Coupe de France and the 1994 Ligue 1 title, and participated in the 1993 UEFA Cup semi-final, memorable for the comeback against Real Madrid (4-1 in the second leg, notably led by Antoine Kombouaré). Sassus was also called up twice for France, against Austria and Benfica.

Ten years after his death, Jean-Luc Sassus remains an endearing figure of a generation that shaped French football in the 1990s, and a privileged witness to the early professional steps of one who would become one of the greatest players in history.