Leganés player forced to play with Zidane's autographed shirt
Zidane signed a shirt for Carlos Martínez but as the club couldn't afford any spare shirts, the midfielder spent the whole season playing with the autographed shirt.
When Zidane paid Leganés a visit
Just seven years ago, Leganés were a modest side who knew nothing about sponsorship deals. A large part of their income came from renting out their stadium to production companies to film adverts for television. On one such occasion, in the autumn of 2009, one of the protagonists for a shoot was none other than Zinedine Zidane. Sensing the importance of the moment, Head of Press and Marketing at Leganés Dani Abanda handed Zidane's agent Carlos Martínez's Leganés team shirt to pose for a photograph; but Zizou misheard and ended up signing the shirt. The photograph was never taken.
No spare shirts
The shirt¡s owner, Carlos Martínez, a midfielder, only found out about Zidane's signature the following day. He takes up the story: "Dani called me to day he had some good news and some bad new news. The good news was that Zidane had signed my Leganés shirt, the bad news was that the club didn't have any spare shirts and I would have to play for the rest of the season with the one which had Zidane's signature".
Carlos Martínez played 30 games in Spain's third tier, the Second Division B, wearing his autographed shirt. "Dani took advantage of the story to sell it to televsion broadcasters and they filmed a report about it. Some rivals would take the mickey", he explained. From that moment, to his team mates, Carlos became ‘the Zidane of Llerena’, his home town in Badajoz. And he still has the shirt, with Zidane's signature just barely visible.
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