Zidane certain Thuram will also return

Zinedine Zidane is convinced Juventus defender Lilian Thuram will follow his example and make his international comeback when France meet Ivory Coast in a friendly later this month.

"I have no doubt (he will return)," Zidane said yesterday. Thuram, however, would not commit himself yesterday, saying: "I will take a position within two or three months."

Zidane, a World Cup and European Championship winner with Thuram, said on Wednesday he was returning to boost France's chances to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Both players announced they were retiring from international duty after France's quarter-final exit at the hands of eventual champions Greece at Euro 2004.

French newspapers hailed Zidane as "The Saviour" on Thursday after his decision to come out of retirement to help France in their struggle to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Le Parisien devoted most of its first three pages to covering the comeback by the three-times World Player of the Year, and LCI television lauded his skills in a profile it repeated with its regular news updates.

"Zidane restores hope to an entire people," ran a headline in Le Parisien. The conservative daily Le Figaro wrote of "The incredible return of 'Zinedine Zorro'".

France lie fourth behind the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and Israel in their World Cup qualifying group and face a struggle to win a spot in next year's finals in Germany.

The media's joy at his return was tinged with concern that the gifted number 10 may no longer command the strength and skill that made him one of soccer's greatest ever players. "It is not at all certain that Zidane, slower and more physically fragile, is the appropriate man to save a country in peril," wrote Le Figaro.

Sports daily L'Equipe caught the mood of jubilation among ordinary fans, filling its front page with a picture of Zidane under the headline "He's coming back".

"The French team will compete with its best assets," it wrote. "Down for a year, it needed an electric shock. It has happened. Now it's just about playing football."

Zidane said he decided to make his international comeback after rediscovering his lost motivation. But the Real Madrid playmaker, who earned 93 caps, said he did not want to be dubbed a "saviour" of France despite the hopes his announcement raised.

Zidane will return when France meet Ivory Coast in a friendly on August 17th in Montpellier. "I have found again the motivation I might have lost a while ago," Zidane told Canal Plus in an interview on Thursday. "But I'm not coming back as a saviour, I'm not Zorro," he added.

"To be at your best, you need to be constantly under pressure and that is what I want," he said. "I love the France shirt, I want to help this side."

France will meet the Faroe Islands in Lens, before travelling to Ireland and Switzerland. Their last game will be against Cyprus at the Stade de France.