![\"Zinedine](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767654257_489_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nRABAT, Morocco \u2014 Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane is trying to do his own thing at the Africa Cup of Nations despite his famous surname.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old Zidane has yet to concede a goal after starting both of Algeria\u2019s opening games and is expected to return on Tuesday for the Fennec Foxes\u2019 last 16 clash with Congo after being rested for the final group game against Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n
Zidane\u2019s father, France superstar Zinedine Zidane, was at the Moulay El Hassan Stadium in Rabat to see his son play in Algeria\u2019s opening 3-0 victory over Sudan and again for the 1-0 win over Burkina Faso.<\/p>\n
Zidane senior, whose parents emigrated from Algeria to France in the 1950s, was feted by the supporters every time he was shown on the big screens. But he wasn\u2019t alone. Luca Zidane\u2019s mother and younger brother were also in the stadium to see him play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy they\u2019re here and that they\u2019re supporting me,\u201d the goalkeeper told SNTV this week. \u201cFor the players, everyone knows when their family comes, it\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luca Zidane was born in France to a Spanish mother and opted to represent his grandparents\u2019 country after being invited by the Algerian federation. He received his chance to shine at the Africa Cup because of a knee injury to Alexandre Oukidja, who likely would have started otherwise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a source of pride for me to be able to represent my country and play in an Africa Cup of Nations. It\u2019s a great experience,\u201d he said. \u201cRepresenting your country was already something magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Zinedine Zidane attends the Africa Cup of Nations group E soccer match between Algeria and Sudan in Rabat, Morocco, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. Credit: AP\/Mosa’ab Elshamy<\/p>\n
Luca Zidane, like his three brothers, developed through Real Madrid\u2019s youth academy. He played for the senior team, mostly as a reserve goalkeeper, and left, initially on loan, in 2019 to pursue more playing opportunities. Belgian goalkeeper Thibault Courtois is still the first choice at Real Madrid. Zidane is playing club soccer at Spanish second-division side Granada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to be myself, to build my career on my own terms,\u201d Luca Zidane said. \u201cHere with the national team I try to help the team as much as possible to achieve our goals, and it\u2019s the same at club level. So, I\u2019m trying to build my career step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RABAT, Morocco \u2014 Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane is trying to do his own thing at the Africa Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,323,1308],"class_list":{"0":"post-5993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-soccer","10":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}