Zidane labels Del Piero a ´champion´

Former French playmaker Zinedine Zidane has described ex-Juventus team-mate Alessandro Del Piero as a ‘champion’.

The 38 year-old was delighted to return to action for the Bianconeri against a Torino legends side in a charity match on Wednesday, and lavished praise on his former team-mate.”It’s great to play once in a while and see the old friends and it’s good to come back to Italy because I don’t come here often,” Zidane said. “It’s great seeing him (Del Piero) like that, we’re almost the same age and seeing him playing like this it’s just great. He is a champion, he still is, Del Piero.””Juventus was really important for me and for my career, so coming back here and meeting the guys I played with and the guys I made history with is great.”Zidane, who left Turin for Real Madrid for a then world record transfer fee, said he regrets seeing Juventus hit a slump this season, with Luigi Delneri’s side in seventh on the table and out of the European places.”I, like everyone else, don’t like to see it,” Zidane said. “We want to see Juventus on the top, always as they were in the past.””There are hard times now, but with time maybe they will be return again to being the same old Juventus.”