Schooled under his mother's name to protect him, Luca Zidane recalls his Madrid childhood

Luca Zidane joined Leganés, a second-division Spanish club based in the Madrid suburbs, after two seasons at Granada. A return to his roots for the 28-year-old goalkeeper, born in Marseille in May 1998 and trained at Real Madrid, who took the opportunity of his debut at his new club to open up about his childhood in the Spanish capital.

The most striking revelation from his comments to a Madrid radio station concerns his schooling: his parents had chosen to enroll their sons under their mother’s maiden name, Véronique Fernandez, to shield them from the pressure linked to their father’s surname. “At school, we used my mother’s surname, Fernandez, to protect ourselves. It wasn’t because people looked at me differently, it was just to protect us a bit,” he explains. Before admitting with clarity: “In the end, everyone knew we were Zidane’s sons.”

His full name, Luca Zinedine Zidane Fernandez, thus bears the mark of this dual family identity. The goalkeeper pays tribute to his mother, whom he describes as the pillar of the household: “She was the one at home, who raised us and was behind our homework.”

Luca also recalls the start of his goalkeeping career, attributing this choice to his older brother Enzo, three years his senior. “He told me it was better, I don’t know if he tricked me,” he jokes.

Sportively, Luca Zidane’s career has taken him well beyond Liga 2. His consistent performances in the second division opened the doors to the Algerian national team, of which he became the number one goalkeeper. He notably played in the last Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, then the 2026 World Cup, where Algeria was eliminated in the round of 16 by Switzerland on 2 July.