Zidane - A Galactico For Galacticos
Back-to-back Champions League wins with Real Madrid have cemented his status as a coaching great
Having retired in 2006 with no public desire to become a coach, it was assumed Zinedine Zidane was ready for civilian life with his wife and four sons.
But the “smell of the grass” lingered in his nostrils, explains ex-Real Madrid star Kaka. “He told me one day that when he stopped playing he didn’t want to be a coach," he said.
“He just wanted to stay with his family, enjoy life a little bit and travel around. And after two or three years he missed the field, the smell of the grass and he thought ‘no, maybe it’s time to get back’.”
In 2009, Zidane returned to Real Madrid, where he had spent five years as a player. He took an advisory role offered by club president Florentino Perez, one of several posts held in preparation for the Santiago Bernabeu hotseat.
Zidane worked his way through the ranks for seven more years. He was “special advisor” under Jose Mourinho, he was sporting director, assistant and eventually Castilla coach before landing the top job as Perez’s answer to Pep Guardiola.
His appointment was the thunderstorm that cleared the air after Rafael Benitez. All the hostility and disquiet at the club went out the door with Rafa.
Sergio Ramos, James Rodriguez and Cristiano Ronaldo – big players with big personalities – were resentful of Benitez and unwilling to take his instructions.
But under Zidane, there’s an undeniable sense of unity in the squad. It’s the kind of alchemy required to get a club like Real Madrid performing to its potential.
Zidane has qualities Benitez doesn’t, despite his decades of experience. Zidane had genuine pedigree as a player, his communication is precise and composed.
Madrid came very close to overhauling a Barcelona side who at one stage looked well in the clear for La Liga last season.
Although they won the Champions League on penalties, a chorus of “yeah, but” followed them due to the poverty of opponents they faced in the knockouts.
The sceptics said that Madrid, for all their individual quality, had got somewhat lucky along the way.
Zidane’s part in the triumph was downplayed and he liked it like that. He is the king of the understatement. He will do everything he can to avoid a media storm.
When questioned earlier this season if he felt he was a “lucky” coach, Zidane replied that of course he felt lucky to work at a club such as Real Madrid.
That ability to defuse, rather than ignite, is a quality loved within a club as overexposed as Real Madrid.
Gone are any comparisons to Roberto Di Matteo, sacked a few months on from winning the Champions League, Zidane is now in Brian Clough and Arrigo Sacchi territory having won a second European title in a row against Juventus in Cardiff.
That doesn’t happen to a lucky coach. Zidane is a Galactico coach for Galactico times.
“Zidane, I would say, is comparable to Carlo Ancelotti or Vicente del Bosque,” said ex-Madrid goalkeeper Bodo Illgner. “He is a coach who makes the best out of what he’s got.
“He has top-class players available but he works excellently with them. He is the ideal coach for Real Madrid.
“Young players have huge respect for him as he has this aura as a former world class player. Stars like Ronaldo respect him as he can talk eye to eye with them which wasn't the case with Benitez. Furthermore, his calm and circumspect character is very helpful as well."
That performance owed much to Ronaldo’s outstanding finishing. Zidane’s greatest accomplishment might well be his management of the multi-Ballon d’Or winner.
Ronaldo’s personality is such that every game is reckoned to be an opportunity for more individual glory. Zidane has persuaded Ronaldo that some goals mean more than others and some months mean more than others too. With sufficient rest, he’s got his iconic No.7 to peak at the end of the season.
And once again Ronaldo turned up to prove what an extra-terrestrial player he is. It takes a Galactico to know a Galactico.
That’s just one example of how focused Zidane is on physical preparation. He hired fitness coach Antonio Pintus, who was at Juventus when Zidane was a player, from Lyon last summer to ensure Madrid would arrive at the decisive part of the season in the best possible condition.
There's such an assurance about Real Madrid now and so many of their matches look a doddle. It’s tempting to conclude that any old mug could stick 11 of their players out on to the field and see it work.
But the ill-fated reign of Benitez taught us that’s not true.
A Champions League-winning La Liga veteran wasn't able to get the job done at the Santiago Bernabeu, widely regarded as one of the most difficult dressing rooms in world football.
Zidane, with the ink barely dry on his UEFA Pro Licence, has already won both of those titles.
He’s making the difficult seem easy and the grace with which he played his football translates perfectly into how he manages his team.
With every day, Zizou is no longer regarded as a fortunate son. Real's European win over Juventus showed he's the very source of their recent success.
By Peter Staunton. Additional reporting by Ives Galarcep, Alberto Piñero & Niklas König