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Category Famous Personalities

In which edition did Zizou achieve FIFA World Cup Golden Ball?

France playmaker Zinedine Zidane won the adidas Golden Ball voted for by journalists at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™.

Although his team ultimately failed in their bid to lift the Trophy, Les Bleus’ No.10 won the vote for the best player to grace the world stage in Germany. Behind ‘Zizou’ came Italy’s defensive rock Fabio Cannavaro, with the Juventus defender’s Azzurri team-mate Andrea Pirlo completing the podium.

In the Final against Italy, he opened the scoring with an audacious spot-kick. Despite his tireless prompting, however, Zidane was unable to pick up the second FIFA World Cup winner’s medal of a glittering career and was sent from the field in extra time for butting Marco Materazzi in the chest.

The Golden Ball award is presented to the best player at each FIFA World Cup finals, with a shortlist drawn up by the FIFA technical committee and the winner voted for by representatives of the media. Those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Ball and Bronze Ball awards as the second and third most outstanding players in the tournament respectively. The current award was introduced in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, sponsored by Adidas and France Football, though fifa.com also lists in their player articles as “golden ball winners” Kempes, Cruyff, Pelé, Bobby Charlton, Garrincha and Didi for 1978, 1974, 1970, 1966, 1962 and 1958 respectively. Barcelona is the only club whose players have won the Golden Ball a record 3 times (Johan Cruyff in 1974, Romário in 1994, Lionel Messi in 2014).

 

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In which year did Zizou, a Frenchman, win the FIFA World Cup with his country?

Zinedine Zidane, byname Zizou, (born June 23, 1972, Marseille, France), French football (soccer) player who led his country to victories in the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

Zidane joined Real Madrid in 2001, and the following year the team won the Champions League title and the European Super Cup. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) named Zidane World Player of the Year three times (1998, 2000, and 2003).

Zidane was also a success in international competition. He had an eventful 1998 World Cup, which was held in France for the first time. Zidane stomped on an opponent in the second game of the first round and was suspended for two contests. There was speculation that he would be kicked off the team, but he returned in the quarterfinal round. Zidane scored two goals in the final against Brazil, and France took the World Cup with a 3–0 victory. In 2000 Zidane was named player of the tournament after leading France to the European Championship.

 

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Who is the footballer who is popularly known as Zizou?

Zinedine Yazid Zidane, popularly known as “Zizou”, is a former professional French football who played as an attacking midfielder in the juniors teams of the France and eventually in the core national team for a very long period. He also played for the clubs like Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus and Real Madrid, and brought laurels for each of them.

His elegance, swiftness and exceptional ball control made him probably the best of his time.

He is decorated with Legion of Honour bestowed by French Government and National Order of Merit by Algerian Government for his remarkable career.

In 1989, Zizou earned his first professional contract by Cannes and made his debut in the French first division game against Nantes. In his first full season with Cannes, the club secured its first ever European football berth by qualifying for the UEFA Cup after finishing fourth in the league. He made 61 appearances in his first three seasons for the club and scored six goals.

In 2004, he was declared as the best European footballer in the history of UEFA. In 2006, he scored his maiden hat-trick, against Sevilla, and ended the season as the second highest goal scorer, only after Ronaldo.

In 2016, he was bestowed with more intense duty- managing Real Madrid. Under his regime, Madrid set a new record of 16 consecutive La-Liga victory. He also led the team in the 2016 and 2017 UEFA Championship, 2016 FIFA Club World Cup and 2017 UEFA Super Cup victory. He was awarded as the Best FIFA Men’s Coach in 2017.

 

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How many Champions League has Zidane won as a coach?

The UEFA Champions League is the premier club competition in Europe. Played every year, there is a scramble for places in this tournament in domestic leagues across different countries. When qualification in itself is a matter of pride, it isn’t difficult to imagine how prestigious winning this tournament would be.

Spanish giants Real Madrid however, have made it a habit to win this event and have dominated the tournament. In fact, they have won the European Cup. UEFA Champions League 13 times – a record in the competition.

The last three times they have won this tournament, they have had the same manager in charge – Frenchman Zinedine Zidane. Zidane, who is also Real Madrid’s current manager, became just the third manager to win the competition on three occasions.

By winning this title for a third time in 2018, Zidane joined Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti as the only managers to win it thrice. What makes zidane’s feat even more incredible is the manner in which he achieved it. Zidane’s Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2016, 2017 and 2018, making it a hat-trick of titles. That makes Zidane the only manager to have won the competition three times in a row!

 

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Which post Impressionist painter is known for his use of bold colours and strong expressive brushwork?

The transportive work of Vincent van Gogh has transposed us through the limits of time and into an era where Impressionist paintings were a statement to be made. While the artist himself may be of post-impressionism, he manages to capture the open composition of the movement perfectly.

Through his swirling brush strokes, the artist would convey his feelings and his state of mind. His belief that there was a power behind nature made him try to capture it through his work. Therefore, he strove to become a painter of rural life and nature.

Van Gogh always aimed to stay within the “guise of reality” which gave his paintings an abstract form. However, he later wrote that at times he might have taken it too far, reality having been set as a background character and being heavily overshadowed by the protagonist: symbolism.

Each artistic development Van Gogh had gone through has been owed to his living across different places in Europe. He took to immersing himself in the local culture and activity, he judged and studied the lighting and implemented in his various paintings. His evolution had been slow, and he was acutely aware of his painterly limitations, yet he kept his individual outlook throughout each work.

He might have been pushed to move often as a coping mechanism when faced with the realities of his current situation, however, it also contributed to his development of his technical skill. Whenever he painted a portrait, he wanted them to endure through the passage of time and would use colors to capture the emotions of each person rather than aim for realism.

 

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Who is considered one of the founders of Cubism?

Cubism is an artistic movement, created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, which employs geometric shapes in depictions of human and other forms. Over time, the geometric touches grew so intense that they sometimes overtook the represented forms, creating a more pure level of visual abstraction. Though the movement’s most potent era was in the early 20th Century, the ideas and techniques of Cubism influenced many creative disciplines and continue to inform experimental work.

Picasso attended the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, where his father taught, at 13 years of age. In 1897, Picasso began his studies at Madrid’s Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, which was Spain’s top art academy at the time. Picasso attended only briefly, preferring to roam the art exhibits at the Prado, studying paintings of Rembrandt, El Greco, Francisco Goya, and Diego Veláquez.

During this nascent period of Picasso’s life, he painted portraits, such as his sister Lola’s First Communion. As the 19th century drew to a close, elements of Symbolism and his own interpretation of Modernism began to be apparent in his stylized landscapes.

In 1900, Picasso first went to Paris, the center of the European art scene. He shared lodgings with Max Jacob, a poet and journalist who took the artist under his wing. The two lived in abject poverty, sometimes reduced to burning the artist’s paintings to stay warm.

Before long, Picasso relocated to Madrid and lived there for the first part of 1901. He partnered with his friend Francisco Asis Soler on a literary magazine called “Young Art,” illustrating articles and creating cartoons sympathetic to the poor. By the time the first issue came out, the developing artist had begun to sign his artworks “Picasso,” rather than his customary “Pablo Ruiz y Picasso.”

 

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Which is one of the greatest Renaissance painters?

Nearly 500 years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci still remains the most well-known Renaissance Man. A jack of all trades, his masterful combination of art with math and science gave birth to plenty of inventions. As an artist, his masterpieces such as the Last Supper, Mona Lisa, and the Vitruvian Man, remain religious and cultural icons to this day. Discover the life and works of The Master, fall in love with his brilliance, and decode his genius with our top picks.

Leonardo da Vinci is probably the best-known Renaissance artist, famous for his masterworks The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. The classic “renaissance man,” da Vinci was not only an artist but also an inventor, scientist, architect, engineer, and more. His innovative techniques included layering of paints, precise attention to light, shadow, and human form, and a detailed eye for expression and gesture — the last of which has led to endless speculation over the impassive face of the Mona Lisa. His famous sketch known as The Vitruvian Man is shown to the right.

In 1472 Leonardo was accepted into the painters’ guild of Florence, but he remained in his teacher’s workshop for five more years, after which time he worked independently in Florence until 1481. There are a great many superb extant pen and pencil drawings from this period, including many technical sketches—for example, pumps, military weapons, mechanical apparatus—that offer evidence of Leonardo’s interest in and knowledge of technical matters even at the outset of his career.

 

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Why did Jean Paul Sartre and Boris Pasternak refuse the Nobel Prize?

Sartre postulated that past awarded winners did not represent equally all ideologies and nations, and was concerned that his work would be unjustly and undesirably misinterpreted by rightist circles who would criticize “certain past errors.”  Sartre, himself, disagreed with particular laureates of past awards, including, interestingly enough, Boris Pasternak who also refused the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957, though for different reasons.  

But the refusal was not a theatrical or “impulsive gesture,” Sartre wrote in a statement to the Swedish press, which was later published in Le Monde. It was consistent with his longstanding principles. “I have always declined official honors,” he said, and referred to his rejection of the Legion of Honor in 1945 for similar reasons. 

There was another reason as well, an “objective” one, Sartre wrote. In serving the cause of socialism, he hoped to bring about “the peaceful coexistence of the two cultures, that of the East and the West.” (He refers not only to Asia as “the East,” but also to “the Eastern bloc.”)

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, said to-day that he had “voluntarily” changed his mind about accepting the Nobel Prize and had done so without having consulted even his friends. He told me at his villa ten miles outside Moscow that he had thought over the reaction to the award and decided fully on his own to renounce it.

This morning he wrote in pencil a brief telegram of explanation to the Swedish Academy, carried it himself to the local post office, and so informed the world. The telegram read:

“Considering the meaning this award has been given in the society to which I belong, I must reject this undeserved prize which has been presented to me. Please do not receive my voluntary rejection with displeasure. – Pasternak.”

 

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Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2020?

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

Born in New York City in 1943, Glück grew up on Long Island and from an early age was drawn to reading and writing poetry. Her parents read her classical mythology as bedtime stories, and she was transfixed by the tales of Greek gods and heroes — themes she would later explore in her work. She wrote some of her earliest verses when she was 5, and set her mind to becoming a poet when she was in her early teens. She struggled with anorexia as a teenager, a disease she later attributed to her obsession with purity and achieving control, and almost starved herself to death before eventually recovering through therapy.

She began taking poetry workshops around that time, and attended Sarah Lawrence College and later Columbia University, where she studied with the poet Stanley Kunitz. She supported herself by working as a secretary so that she could write on the side. In 1968, she published her first collection, “Firstborn.” While her debut was well received by critics, she wrestled with writers’ block afterward and took a teaching position at Goddard College in Vermont. Working with students inspired her to start writing again, and she went on to publish a dozen volumes of poetry.

Glück’s verses often reflect her preoccupation with dark themes — isolation, betrayal, fractured family and marital relationships, death. But her spare, distilled language, and her frequent recourse to familiar mythological figures, gives her poetry a universal and timeless feel, said the critic and writer Daniel Mendelsohn, the editor at large for The New York Review of Books.

 

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Who was the youngest to win the Literature prize?

To date, the youngest Literature Laureate is Rudyard Kipling, best known for The Jungle Book, who was 41 years old when he was awarded the Literature Prize in 1907.

Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling, was an artist and scholar who had considerable influence on his son’s work, became curator of the Lahore Museum, and is described presiding over this “wonder house” in the first chapter of Kim, Rudyard’s most famous novel. His mother was Alice Macdonald, two of whose sisters married the highly successful 19th-century painters Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, while a third married Alfred Baldwin and became the mother of Stanley Baldwin, later prime minister. These connections were of lifelong importance to Kipling.

Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked for seven years as a journalist. His parents, although not officially important, belonged to the highest Anglo-Indian society, and Rudyard thus had opportunities for exploring the whole range of that life. All the while he had remained keenly observant of the thronging spectacle of native India, which had engaged his interest and affection from earliest childhood. He was quickly filling the journals he worked for with prose sketches and light verse.

In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Englishman to be so honoured. In South Africa, where he spent much time, he was given a house by Cecil Rhodes, the diamond magnate and South African statesman. This association fostered Kipling’s imperialist persuasions, which were to grow stronger with the years. 

 

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