Less than a year after leaving Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane will return to the bench of the first team. The French replaces Argentina’s Santiago Solari as coach.
A start at the top, a return to savior! Nine months after his surprise resignation, Zinedine Zidane signed Monday 11th March, 2019 a resounding return to Real Madrid to replace Santiago Solari, coach discredited. With a contract until 2022 and an ambitious goal: to rebuild the “White House”.
👔 Zidane regresa al @realmadrid.#HalaMadrid | #RealMadrid https://t.co/frvoYof4sx
— Real Madrid C.F.⚽ (@realmadrid) March 11, 2019
What an incredible turnaround! As the master of the opposite, the French football icon (46 years) returns to the theater of his recent achievements as a coach to bring a Real end of the cycle on the road to success.
However, resigning last May after the conquest of its third consecutive Champions League, unprecedented performance, Zidane seemed to have done the trick of the merengue bench (2016-2018). We even talked about him to take the reins of Juventus Turin, the French team world champion appearing out of reach in the immediate future.
But his loyalty to the Madrid club and his friendship for President Florentino Pérez have convinced “ZZ” to shorten his sabbatical year to come to the bedside team in disarray in recent weeks: two clasicos lost to FC Barcelona and a humiliation against Ajax Amsterdam in the round of 16 of C1 (2-1, 1-4).
“The steering committee has decided to appoint Zinédine Zidane as Real Madrid coach with immediate effect, for the end of this season and the following three, until June 2022,” Real wrote in a statement, denouncing the dismissal. of Solari, ex-technician of the reserve.
Improbable turn of events
This return of Zidane is an unlikely twist in a very tumultuous season at Real: when he had left the club at the top, the French thought it needed “change” in an aging workforce and fed trophies. Less than a year later, Zidane comes back to save the bar at the end of the season that promised to be a long ordeal.
We can imagine that the former captain of the France team, who had made a similar comeback in the jersey of the Blues in 2005 after announcing his international retirement, got guarantees, especially for the transfer window.
The press reports that one of the reasons for his resignation in May was related to his desire to upset the workforce to continue to win, including leaving some stars like Gareth Bale, and bringing players like the Belgian Eden Hazard (Chelsea).
Pérez had not been able to convince him to stay and his absence was heavily felt.
After winning nine of thirteen possible trophies with the Frenchman, Real let out his top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo last summer and sank with his new technician Julen Lopetegui, sacked late October after a 5-1 defeat in the clasico in Barcelona.
Incredible challenge
First acting, Solari was confirmed in November in office, extending until 2021 and winning the World Club. But between his conflicts with the players (Bale, Isco, Marcelo) and his black week, the Argentine found Zidane’s costume probably a bit wide.
This paved the way for the return of “ZZ”, who still lives in Madrid. Three of his four sons still play in Real, Luca Zidane (20) being the third goalkeeper of the first team.
A “Zizou” to rebuild over time, a challenge to its measure, even if the end of this season looks delicate.
After the 27th day this weekend and 11 games at the end of the Liga, Real (3rd, 51 pts) faces an incredible challenge, at the height of the prowess of coach Zidane: try to catch up 12 points on leader Barcelona (1st, 63 pts) to save his season.
In 2016, while “Zizou” was named during the season, his Real was 12 points behind leader Barcelona after 27 days. But he had steadily nibbled to fail a short length of Barça. This is called a resounding comeback.
