Zinedine Zidane, Veikka Gustafsson and Stephane Houdet speak during the DAIS Conference and Exhibition on Monday.

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

It was evident once again why decorated Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane is always at the helm of the affairs when it comes to football.

Zidane, who won several trophies and accolades both as a player and coach, asserted he doesn’t like breaks and vacations.

Zidane was in the city to attend the inaugural Dubai Artificial Intelligence Sport (DAIS) Conference and Exhibition on Monday following the break for Euro 2020 qualifiers.

“Football is my passion and I can’t think of anything else other than football. I don’t like to take breaks. It takes all my time. I always think about it. When you are at the top club like Real Madrid you don’t have time for anything else,” said the former French international star.

Zidane won the FIFA World Cup with France in 1998 and also won the Ballon d ‘Or Award.

“We have matches after every three day so a break is the last thing that I can think of,” said the coach, who guided Real to Champions League glory.

Zidane also stressed the importance of the use of the technology in sports.

“Technical development allow us to do good things in sports. We need to know that a team’s technological development is very important. It helps an athlete or a team to perform better.

“Any device can give you the information but the human being is the most important aspect. A competitive team of doctors and scientist work on daily basis because we need to know the conditions and readiness of the players before every match,” added one of the most successful coach of all time.

“It is difficult to be on the same level every day. Blood tests help us know the readiness of a player. We make him ready. There are times when players are playing seven matches in seven days for a national team that is difficult. With the help of AI we can tell whether a player is fit to play or not,” asserted the 47-year-old. I have three people working with me. I don’t need more than 10 people. It is better to have 10 people whom you trust than to have 40 whom you don’t trust.

“I am not the right person to talk much about the use of technology on that level but one thing is for sure that the future will be the combination of human and AI,” he concluded.

He was sharing the dais with two other legends -- renowned mountaineer Veikka Gustafsson and wheelchair tennis champion Stephane Houdet -- during a panel discussion titled as Sporting Legend – The Future Vision.

Houdet said: “My artificial leg works in synchronisation with my real leg. I experience the use of technology in my daily life.”

Commenting of his hectic training schedule he informed:

“We have two hours of tennis training which is followed by learning the motion of the wheelchair. It is like a combination F1 and tennis. At the beginning, a TV remote was used for disabled people. But now it has become the most important part of any household,” he said.

Gustafsson said: “Human being is like a computer. We have hardware and software both embedded in us. Our software use hardware. Your software needs to be motivated. We use AI very often like for measuring oxygen in the blood but that does not you in acclimatising with the conditions,” he added.

Meanwhile, how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is influencing the daily life was once again evident at the DAIS Conference and Exhibition.

The conference was held in Dubai in which the distinguished speakers from sporting fraternity shared their insights and stressed up on the importance of the technology in sports. For the physical demonstration of the same and to make people understand the need of AI in the future, a human-size robot was brought at the venue to entertain the crowd. Not only did he answer the questions put up by the people    but also tapped his feet to tune of famous chartbusters.

He also enchanted the audience with his witty replies. When he was asked by Gulf Today to show his dancing skills, the robot asked to play the music.

He enthralled the visitors with his dancing moves and also gave high-five to the curious spectators. Taking his intelligence to another level, he ruled out any marriage plans, saying “I don’t want to get married.”