English Literature

Zinedine Yazid Zidane is a retired French world cup winning footballer who was born on June 23, 1972 in Marseille, France. He is recognized among the many people who have found their way in the world of fame and is considered as one of footballs all-time greats. He has played for club teams in France, Italy and Spain and was a member of the French National Team. In addition, he has career accomplishments which include helping France win the 1998 world cup and Euro 2000 as well as winning the 2002 UEFA Champions League as a galactico with Real Madrid. In 1998, he was named the European footballer of the year and retired from professional football after the 2006 world cup. In 2004, he was named by the Forbes magazine as the 42nd highest paid athlete in the world with earnings of US 15.8 million a year. Zidane has had endorsements with many companies including Adidas, Lego, FranceTelecom, Orange, Audi Volvic and Christian Dior. After his retirement, Zidane was announced as the advisor to the president on June1, 2009 (Miglani 1). On the other hand, Bill Gates otherwise known as William Henry Bill Gates III is an American who was born on October 28, 1955. He is a business magnate, philanthropist and chairman of Microsoft, a software company he founded with Paul Allen in 1979. He has been consistently ranked among the worlds wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall as of 2009, although he carried that title of The worlds richest man from 1995-2007 according to Forbes magazine and as of the year 2007 Bill Gates worth was estimated at 59 billion (Kayne 1)

Both celebrities are seen to have a similarity in their early lives in that they started or rather gained interest and started working on their careers at tender ages. Zinedine got his start in football (otherwise known as soccer in North America) at an early age when he joined the United States Saint-Henri club before moving on to Septemes Sports Olympiques after his coach convinced the director of the club to sign him. At the age of 14 Zidane participated in the first year junior selection and its in that same year that he was discovered. He started playing with professionals at the age of 16 and he knew it would only be a matter of time before he also became one and he also knew by so doing he was on his way to realizing his dreams. Zidane played his very first game in first division at the age of 17 years and in due course exhibited a lot of determination and it was from then that football changed from being an ambition to a passion. The Cannes midfielder scored his first goal on February 8th, 1991 and was promised a car by the Cannes president when he scored his first goal as a professional (Chapman 1). Comparatively, Bill Gates had come from a family of entrepreneurship and high spirited liveliness and as a result he also had an early interest in software and began programming computers at the age of thirteen. As teenagers, Bill Gates with his childhood friend Paul Allen, ran a small company called Traf-O-data and sold a computer they had come up with to the city of Seattle that could count city traffic (Bellis 1). These illustrations openly display the great passion both celebritiespeople had in their early stages of life and they natured these interests and later their dreams blossomed into realities that they celebrate today.

However, both parties exhibit some differences in their early lives which can be illustrated as follows Zidane was the fifth child of Smail and Malika Zidane and his parents hailed from the Kabylie region of Algeria. They lived in crime-ridden housing development in Marseille, a port city in south France where unemployment and suicide rates were alarmingly high. His father had a steady work as an overnight department store keeper but still the family had to live in tight quarters in which not all seven of them could sit down together and eat, therefore the family was not well-off, so to say (Burke 1). On the contrary, Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates and Mary Maxwell Gates of English German and Scotch-Irish descent. His family was upper middle class or rather they were well-off in life (they lived a very comfortable life). His father was a prominent lawyer and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the united way. He was the fourth born in the family and early in his life, the parents had a law career in mind for him (Chapman 3). Its evident that these two famous people had a completely different social life in their childhood based on the difference in class of the two families.

Both characters had education and training at some point in their lives up to certain levels. Zidane played soccer since childhood and at the age of 14 he was already a ballboy. When he was 13 years old, he signed with the Cannes club team at a junior level. His training was basically in football clubs (Burke 1). Correspondingly, Bill Gates attended public elementary school and the private lakeside school and it was there that he started developing an interest in software. Later on, he enrolled in Harvard University in 1973 as a freshman to study computer science and while at the university he developed a version of the programming language after which he left the university in 1975 to completely concentrate on Microsoft (Chapman 3).

Zidane and Gates training and education differ in the sense that each of them trained in completely different fields and their levels of education and training are not the same. The former is seen to have majorly involved him in football from early age because he joined the United States Saint-Henri club to train for soccer and thereafter to Septemes Sports Olympiques before participating in the first year junior selection for the league championship where he was discovered and called to the Sports Regional Centre in Aix-en-provence (Fernando 1). Conversely, Gates attended elementary school, the private lakeshore and the Harvard University where he nurtured his interest of software, although he left the University at his third year to concentrate on Microsoft (Chapman 3)

Every famous person often has something behind the fame which is considered an accomplishment in life that other people live to desire or something which makes them a role model to those who have not reached such heights.Zidane earned his fame in the world by earning player of the year honors in 1998 from the federation Internationale de Football association, or FIFA, the governing body of world soccer. Moreover, he still earned the same honors in 2000 and 2003 and he also led France to win the Euro 2000 tournament defeating Italy in the final. In addition, he signed a four year contract with the Real Madrid team of Spain at a transfer fee of 86 million, the highest fee ever at the time. Lastly, Zidane scored the winning goal in 2002, as Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen of Germany in the title match of the champions League, a tournament that involved the top club teams in Europe (Bashir 1). He has as well involved himself in charity activities by playing matches meant to raise money for projects like building schools. On February 24, 2007 before a match of 10,000 fans at a match in Northern Thailand for the Keuydaroon childrens charity, he scored the first goal and set up the second for a Malaysian teammate as the match ended 2-2. This event raised proceeds that paid for building of two schools and 116 three bedroom houses (Jay 1). Identically, apart from being the worlds richest at one time, Bill gates has accomplished so many things that can be desired by many. He has received honorary degrees and doctorates from many institutions. For example, the Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm in 2000, Sweden in 2002, and Waseda University in Tokyo Japan in 2005 among others. In 2005, Gates was made the honorary Knight Commander of the order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth (Rohde1).  Together with his wife, they were given the award Order of Aztec Eagle in November 2006, for their philanthropic and charity work around the globe in the areas of education and health particularly in Mexico. Gates will also be awarded the 2010 Bower award for business leadership of The Franklin Institute for his achievements in business and for his philanthropic work in October this year (Kidall 1). Its clearly evident from these illustrations that both Zidane and Gates have made major achievements in their lives that leave a lot to be admired. There are no differences that arise in their accomplishments because both of them received various awards and honors based on their performances in their different capacities and they have equally caught peoples attention in the world of fame.

In conclusion, anybody can achieve anything in life despite of the prevailing conditions as long as there is determination. Nothing is difficult to accomplish because from the biographies of Zidane and Gates, they all started working on their dreams at very tender ages and they are now sailing in the world of fame. It doesnt matter whether one comes from a wealthy family or not but all that counts is the fact that somebody is up to make hisher dreams come true. Zidane came from a very humble family that was not even recognized in society, but he still rose up to be among the prominent people recognized in the world through his good play in football. Lastly, its a good thing for the more privileged people in this world to remember the less fortunate in society like orphans and the poor by giving alms to support them just like Zidane and Gates did by philanthropic.