During his two-decade-long career, Youri Djorkaeff played with some of his generation’s greatest talents.
At club level, he counts the Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who he played with at Inter Milan as his greatest-ever team-mate, while on the international front it, most neutrals would rank his midfield partner Zinedine Zidane as another of that era’s greats.
Less than four years after he assisted Zidane’s crucial second goal in the 1998 World Cup final, Djorkaeff’s career took an eye-raising handbrake turn, when he found himself playing alongside the likes of Dean Holden and Michael Ricketts at Bolton Wanderers.
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Djorkaeff on his Bolton team-mates
Djorkaeff wasn’t the only exciting foreign import that was intreguied by boss Sam Allardyce’s ambition, as the likes of Jay-Jay Okocha and Ivan Campo joined the 82-time France international in the north-west.
“We were all in the same boat,” Djorkaeff recalls to FourFourTwo. “If you play for Liverpool or United, the boat is huge. Ours was more like a little rowing boat!” he laughs.
“If one of us leaned too far left, we’d all fall in the water.”
The Trotters quickly built up a reputation as a team who were intent on upsetting the status quo and the ‘little rowing boat’ Djorkaeff speaks of underlines that group’s underdog mentality.
While Bolton were not able to spend in the same manner as their illustrious neighbours in Manchester, or further away in Liverpool, the character and experience of the veterans brought in by Allardyce excelled in leadership roles.
“Campo and Okocha had more experience than most, so they helped me to lead that project,” Djorkaeff adds.
But while Djorkaeff has previously been happy to compare the likes of Zidane and Ronaldo, he believes that to do that with his former Bolton team-mates missed the point.
“You can’t compare them – it wouldn’t be fair,” he replied when asked if there were any areas where Kevin Nolan was better than Zidane.
“Maybe he was the better warrior? But then again, so was Zidane. Bolton was like Asterix and Obelix in their small village standing up to the Roman Empire.
“All of us were great fighters, battling against the rest.”
