India, Oct. 1 -- Vikash Dhorasoo deftly side-stepped the question on Manchester City falling foul of Premier League regulations but shared his thoughts on Zinedine Zidane becoming France's head coach. And he did that with a smile, even prefixing his answer with "you know, I played with him."

"It is wonderful that Zidane is the head coach. If there was one person who could have succeeded Didier Deschamps, it was him. And he has this aura," said Dhorasoo, leaning back and spreading his arms. "He is also a coach who knows how to win and that is important because every tournament France play, they play to win."

From any other former Les Bleus player, this would have been the default response. But Dhorasoo isn't that. In 2011, while speaking...