Zinedine Zidane’s career is etched into footballing legend. A World Cup winner, Euro 2000 champion, and a Champions League victor, the Frenchman also claimed the 1998 Ballon d’Or. As a manager, he guided Real Madrid to two La Liga titles and an unprecedented three consecutive Champions League crowns, with a future role as France’s national team manager agreed for 2026. Given such an illustrious journey, his declaration about the most talented player he ever shared a pitch with is all the more striking.

According to a report by The Blizzard, Zidane once stated, “O’Neill was the most talented player I ever played with.” The subject of this profound praise was Fabian O’Neill, a Uruguayan midfielder whose career, unlike Zidane’s, was tragically cut short by alcohol addiction, culminating in his death in 2022 at just 49 years old.

O’Neill joined Juventus in 2000 from Cagliari, spending just one season alongside Zidane before the Frenchman departed for Real Madrid in 2001. O’Neill himself left Juventus in January 2002 for Perugia, where he played nine games, before a brief return to Cagliari saw him fail to feature in a single Serie B match. His professional career ended after just five games for Nacional in Uruguay, with O’Neill retiring at the age of 29.

A talent unfulfilled

Despite Zidane’s high regard, O’Neill himself expressed humility, if not outright disbelief, regarding the compliment. “I’m proud to have been Zidane’s teammate at Juventus and obviously for what he has said several times about me,” O’Neill once reflected. “But I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t the best player he played with.”

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O’Neill was remarkably candid about his approach to the game, which starkly contrasted with the dedication of his world-class teammates. “I never liked training sessions, but it was so much fun at Juventus,” he admitted. “I played with some world-class players like Zidane, [Alessandro] Del Piero, [Edgar] Davids and Pavel Nedved at Juventus and I can tell you that they trained really hard. They put in a huge effort day after day simply because they wanted to be the best players in their positions. On the other hand, I never trained that hard in my life because I didn’t care about being the best.”

His struggles with alcohol were equally public. O’Neill openly discussed his daily wine consumption, even recalling conversations with teammates. “I remember either Del Piero or [Gianluigi] Buffon asking me while travelling to the stadiums, ‘Fabián, have you been drinking?’ My reply was always the same, ‘Yes, I have. What do you want me to drink if not wine? Milk, like you?’” O’Neill recounted, adding that “drinking wine wasn’t an issue even though I used to drink every day.” He even drew a comparison to Gianluigi Buffon, noting, “Buffon smoked loads of cigarettes and there he is; even now he is the best goalkeeper in the world.”

The Juventus medical staff, however, were gravely concerned about O’Neill’s health due to high cholesterol levels. “You could die if you do nothing about it,” they warned him repeatedly. Yet, O’Neill remained defiant. “I never stopped drinking. I liked it, that’s who I was.” His addiction, which he claimed began in childhood, ultimately led to his premature death from bleeding due to chronic liver disease.

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