Daniel Zorzetto

Daniel Zorzetto was born on 3 December 1953 in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. He started playing football at the age of seven with VGA Saint-Maur, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, and stayed there until 1971.

In 1971 he joined Paris Saint-Germain, playing sixteen matches in the third division and becoming a France junior international. At the end of that season he played for the French juniors at the European junior championship in Spain.

After the split between Paris Saint-Germain and Paris FC in 1972, Zorzetto stayed with Paris FC, making his first division debut that year and playing 27 league matches before the club was relegated in 1974.

On the advice of his Paris FC coach Antoine Dalla Cieca he joined Troyes Aube Football in 1974. Coach Pierre Flamion trusted him immediately, and over four seasons he played 137 league matches. He called them the best years of his career. His form earned him selection for the France under-23 team, with which he played Poland at Besançon in September 1974 and reached the final of the 1976 Toulon Tournament, and a cap for France B against West Germany B at Orléans in February 1977. A serious leg injury kept him off the pitch for a long spell, and many observers felt he deserved a full international cap.

When Troyes were relegated in 1978 he moved to AS Monaco on the advice of Marcel Artelesa. He was a regular until a serious injury in his second season limited him to eight league games, but he started the 1980 Coupe de France final, which Monaco won. He then played for Montpellier (1981 to 1983), Stade de Reims (1983 to 1985, 50 league matches), AS Beauvais (1985 to 1986) and FC Rouen (1986 to 1987), ending his playing career with promotion to the second division. In all he played 246 first division and 104 second division matches.

He became coach of the Rouen reserve team in 1987 and took over the first team in the second division during the 1990 to 1991 season, keeping them up after a strong second half of the campaign. In 1993 Rouen finished third and lost a promotion play-off to AS Cannes. He resigned in January 1994. He coached AS Beauvais from June 1994 to April 1995 and again from November 1996 to 1999, including an unbeaten run of 23 matches in 1996 to 1997.

He then joined ES Troyes AC, coaching its under-17 and under-18 sides. When the club's training centre was inaugurated in 2002, Alain Perrin and Angel Masoni made him its director, and he worked with young players including Karim Ziani, Damien Perquis and Blaise Matuidi until 2004. He took ASF Andrézieux up to the CFA in 2005 and again in 2007, when they won CFA2 group C, then coached RCS La Chapelle-Saint-Luc (2008 to 2011), US Feurs (2011 to 2012) and FC Haut du Lyonnais (2012 to 2013). He later coached young players at Sainte-Savine and Rivière-de-Corps and finished his coaching career at Fontvannes.

Zorzetto met his wife, Michèle, in Troyes and remained closely attached to the Aube for the rest of his life. In 2000 the couple bought a house in Dierrey-Saint-Julien, a village near Troyes, where they lived in his later years.

According to ESTAC, in his last years he devoted most of his time to his wife, watching over her fragile health. Former colleagues described him as loyal, generous, kind and sensitive.

Daniel Zorzetto died on the afternoon of Saturday 17 October 2026, aged 72. His death was reported on 19 October 2026 by the regional newspaper L'Est Éclair and by the local television station Canal 32. The cause of death was not made public.

ESTAC said it had learned of his death with immense sadness and sent its condolences to Michèle and all his family. Stade de Reims, for whom he had played 50 matches, also paid tribute to a reliable and combative player and a man respected by all.

Zorzetto is remembered as one of the defining figures of football in the Aube over five decades, as a player of Troyes Aube Football in the 1970s and as the first director of the ESTAC training centre.

He was part of the Monaco side that won the 1980 Coupe de France, and as a youth coach he helped launch the careers of several professionals, most notably the future France international and World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi.