Zinedine Zidane

The 81-year-old had been fighting a rearguard action to keep his job since Sunday following disparaging comments made during a radio interview on the French broadcaster RMC about the former France international Zinedine Zidane.

French football federation president Noël Le Graët had said that he "wouldn't even have taken his call" if former French star Zinedine Zidane turned manager had been in touch about running the national team. 

Right-wing commentator Eric Zemmour said choice by ex-minister of North African origin to give her daughter an Arab name was 'outragious' and that those with names like Zinedine Zidane were 'less French' than himself.

Real Madrid recruit Enzo Fernández, whose dual nationality makes him eligible to play for either country, is named in a France youth squad.

Marseille is, of course, well-known in the football world for its glamorous club Olympique de Marseille - often simply called OM - with its galaxy of star names, its display cabinets stuffed full of trophies and its famous Vélodrome stadium which is being refurbished in time for the Euro 2016 tournament, largely with public money. But there is another, more diverse, side to football in Marseille, which has a total of 112 different clubs, 13,776 registered players and 60 stadia of varying size and condition. This is also the place where one of France's footballing greats Zinedine Zidane was born and honed his skills as a boy, a city where, in housing estates ravaged by poverty and drug-dealing, people play football for pleasure, to fit in, to make something of themselves or simply because there is nothing else to do. And as these striking images from French photographer Patrick Artinian show, people in Marseille are often forced to play football wherever they can find some space.

Star agrees to invest in Fourth Division Rodez Aveyron in south-west France where the family of his wife Veronique Fernandez-Lentisco live.

The infamous moment French football legend Zinedine Zidane was ejected from the 2006 World Cup final has been immortalised with a statue.