OK, I just checked the game script. These words are from Cloud himself:
"I never was in SOLDIER. I made up the stories about what happened to me five years ago, about being in SOLDIER. I left my village looking for glory, but never made it in to SOLDIER...I was so ashamed of being so weak; then I heard this story from my friend Zack...And I created an illusion of myself made up of what I had seen in my life...And I continued to play the charade as if it were true."
Those are his words. So he wasn't in SOLDIER after all. Anyway, he WAS suipposed to be. He has all the physical attributes of a SOLDIER, including the Jenova cells.
"I never was in SOLDIER. I made up the stories about what happened to me five years ago, about being in SOLDIER. I left my village looking for glory, but never made it in to SOLDIER...I was so ashamed of being so weak; then I heard this story from my friend Zack...And I created an illusion of myself made up of what I had seen in my life...And I continued to play the charade as if it were true."
Those are his words. So he wasn't in SOLDIER after all. Anyway, he WAS suipposed to be. He has all the physical attributes of a SOLDIER, including the Jenova cells.
, but yeah in a way Zack is Clouds role model for the person he wanted to become.