The Best player I have ever seen

Tapes and historical data is invaluable to the progress of human civilization. But the fact that history is revived through documents is a very tricky concept. Lets take for a moment the Irish upheaval of 1916. There were several mistakes and stepping stones towards the study of this rebellion fifty years ago, mainly from political reasons. One can take for example a "real contemporary account" in order to go deep into this event. That could be for example, "Easter 1916" by William Butler Yeats. But when we face the current psychological situation of the author at that moment (he felt betrayed by the other Irish leaders concerning Maud Gonne)and his previous poetical work we can see that his vision of the rebellion was different from "what it was". And certainly that subjectivity of reality leads me to the the discussion now instructed. Are we supposed to rely on historical evidences to believe past events? The frenzy of Positivism and Empiricism that has prevailed since the establishment of the science as the whole truth led us to find unequivocal pieces of evidence in "truth". So Why should we care about past events if we can watch present events now?
It is matter of collective memory.
The continuous discussion between who is the best player in the world of all times lead me to archive in almost a decade, when my appetite for historical football sources was reaching its peak. I managed to acquire a good deal of tapes, ranging from Pelé's Santos and Maradona's Barsa through Cruyff's turn and Platini's revenge. This amount of heavenly material inspired at first to play football. But I felt somehow hollow. These tapes, as many historical speeches given in primary schools in Mexico about ancient heroes, were completely far from my understanding of "empirical reality". But hen the appeared.
It is true that many of the icons of Football, previously mentioned, are the best of the best among the best. But my generation (late 80's) really did not watched any football redentors. Cantona's age was over and the last time I saw him in TV was on a movie about Queen Elizabeth. Van Basten gave glimpses of his talent after a horror injury and Baggio seemed to far from this continent, even far in TV transmissions. And then he appeared.

The incursion of Zinedine Zidane to my footballistical knowledge came with the first Juventus scudetto. Then the Madrid years came after two wonderful championships with Les Bleus. The way he conducted himself in the pitch was marvelous. He did not seem far away from the Mechanic Orange days or the Napoli majestic deeds. He was in the present, in the instant, live and direct. I saw him throughout his career and I am proud and delighted to have seen a player of his character and technique at the time when he was GREAT.
I saw him as millions of people did. It was live and raw. I do not have to put the tape, or ask elder people about his play, and as with literature I see him now. I enjoyed his play, and this is a homage to the people who saw him, to the people who did not, and to the people that saw previous figures and feel the same towards them. Above all a homage to him that I could not wrote when the famous 'headbut' happened. I am really grateful to him, because he made me happy when I failed at a math test, or when my mom barked, as always. THANK YOU Zizou for those beautiful glimpses of magnificent technique. Thank you for that goal against Bayer Leverkusen.