Monaco and France playmaker Camel Meriem is hardly alone in being a fan of Zinédine Zidane, but not too many players can claim that 'Zizou' is an admirer of theirs. "I'd like it a lot if Camel takes over where I left off. The touches I saw him make against Poland won me over," Zidane, who, like Meriem, initially made a name for himself at Bordeaux, said in 2004.

Wearing the fabled, blue No. 10 shirt, Meriem impressed on his international debut against the Poles in November 2004 and the similarities between the two players are seductive. Both men hail from the same region in Algeria and both are leaders who prefer to let their football do the talking.

Unfortunately, the pressure of the inevitable comparisons sometimes seems to weigh heavily on Meriem's shoulders. After a blistering start to the 2004/05 season with Bordeaux - and being named Player of the Month in November - he faded from view in the latter months.

"Playing has stopped being enjoyable," he blasted in May 2005. "If we do this job at all, it's for the fun of playing, but since January that has stopped being the case."

Strong words, but a sign perhaps of how much Meriem's confidence has grown in the last two years.

His Bordeaux career was going nowhere when he was loaned out to Marseille for a season in August 2003, leaving behind a Coach in Elie Baup who had little time for him. "There were always a lot of attacking players like Dugarry, Savio, Darcheville, Pauleta and Feindouno. I was on the bench and the team was doing well. I played twenty minutes here and there, but I was afraid to make a mistake."

His year at the Stade Vélodrome proved to be a turning point. As one of the key figures behind Marseille's march to the UEFA Cup final, Meriem emerged as a risk-taker, capable of the spectacular and the unpredictable, with a keen eye for the killer pass. He cites the faith then-Marseille Coach Alain Perrin had in him as a reason for his excellent season.

Bordeaux were keen to bring Meriem back from his loan spell last summer, and he was happy to hear that new Girondins Coach Michel Pavon intended to play him in his favourite position – tucked in behind the strikers. He scored six goals in 32 appearances but eventually his frustration at the club's struggle against relegation forced him out, signing for Monaco in July 2005.

A member of the 'Anziani generation' along with Benoît Pedretti and Pierre-Alain Frau, Meriem started out as yet another product of the excellent Sochaux youth academy, and spent four years as a professional there from 1998 to 2002 before joining Bordeaux.

He was one of the first to fly from the nest, and many thought he left too soon, but his elevation to the national side has put an end to the debate – as well as reuniting him with old friends.