Zidane living up to his name at Real

Players, supporters happy with manager as Champions League final looms

MADRID: 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 the 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2016.

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