looks on during a press conference at the
club’s Open Media Day at Real Madrid sport
city in Madrid on May 24, 2016. / AFP
PHOTO / GERARD JULIEN
Just five months into his first senior
managerial role, Real Madrid coach
Zinedine Zidane is already living up to the
unenviable task of matching his credentials
as one of the finest players of his
generation.
Fourteen years on from the sumptuous
volley that rippled a rain-soaked net at
Hampden Park in Glasgow to hand Real
their ninth European Cup over Bayer
Leverkusen, he can become just the seventh
man to win the Champions League as a
player and a coach with victory over
Atletico Madrid at Milan’s San Siro on
Saturday.
A repeat of the outcome when Real met
Atletico in the only other Champions League
final between two clubs from the same city
two years ago would see Real extend their
dominance as the most successful club in
the competition’s history with an 11th win.
Zidane was also a part of the 10th. Two
years ago in Lisbon he cut an animated
figure as assistant coach to Carlo Ancelotti
as Sergio Ramos’s stoppage time header
rescued Real before Los Blancos cut loose in
extra-time to win 4-1.
That was the Frenchman’s final match as
Ancelotti’s aid as he delved into the third
tier of Spanish football with Real’s youth
team Castilla to cut his teeth as a coach of
his own merit.
The leap when he was then promoted to the
top job at the Santiago Bernabeu to replace
the sacked Rafael Benitez after an ill-fated
seven month spell in charge in January
seemed steep.
A very Real Madrid solution to a very Real
Madrid problem, many concluded. Zidane
was one of club president Florentino Perez’s
first ‘Galactico’ star signings when he joined
for a world record fee in 2001.
After giving Benitez the shortest of leashes,
Perez bet on stardust over stability once
more.
However, this time it seems to have worked.
Zidane has won 21 of his 26 games in
charge, not only taking Real to just their
second Champions League final in 14 years,
but also pushing Barcelona all the way in a
La Liga title race decided by just a point
when Real trailed their eternal rivals by 12
in February.
“I have a lot to learn, the desire I have to
learn is tremendous and I am convinced I
am going to improve,” Zidane insisted on
Tuesday.
Yet, his easy-going nature and reputation as
a player have instantly produced respect
and results from Madrid’s often
unmanageable, ego-driven dressing room.
“With Zizou’s arrival we have improved
hugely,” said three-time World Player of the
Year Cristiano Ronaldo.
“I think everybody feels the fun comes back
a little bit when he arrived,” added Toni
Kroos.
Fortune has also favoured Zidane. The
embarrassment of being thrown out of the
Copa del Rey for fielding an ineligible
player before his appointment has ensured
Real have been fresher at the business end
of the season than many of their rivals.
Moreover, a run of Roma, Wolfsburg and an
underwhelming Manchester City has been a
far easier road to Milan than that faced by
Atletico in seeing off Barcelona and Bayern
Munich.
Replacing an unloved disciplinarian in
Benitez has also been a contributory factor
to Real’s stars embracing him with open
arms. Every compliment aimed his way
seems like another dart meant to tarnish
Benitez.
“I think when you have been a player you
have a way of focusing on things in football
that is different to a coach who hasn’t
been,” said Ramos.
“Perhaps, that’s why although he has only
been in charge for a short time, it seems like
he has for 30 years.”
Zidane’s slender frame and amiable
attitude still give off the vibe of a player
rather than a man weighed down by the
pressure of leading the richest club in the
world.
“It is a game we’d all love to play… well I
can’t,” he added on Tuesday with a smile
that laid bare he would still feel more
comfortable as a midfield maestro than
sidelined observer.
Yet, despite the change from player, to
assistant and now coach, the constant drive
to win the Champions League remains.