MADRID: In a major turn of events, La Liga giants Real Madrid have named French legend Zinedine Zidane as their full-time manager for a second term which will last till 30 June 2022.
‘Zizou’ will replace Portugal’s Santiago Solari, who was at the helm of the club for just five months and miserably failed in keeping up with Real’s high standards.
Under Solari, Real were knocked out of the Champions League with a shock loss to Ajax Amsterdam, the Copa del Rey semifinal was lost to Barcelona and they are out of contention for winning the LaLiga.
Zidane had quit in May last year following the club’s third consecutive Champions League victory as they defeated Liverpool in the final. He became the first manager in the history of club football to achieve this feat.
His extremely successful two-and-a-half year stint spread across 149 matches, during which the Los Blancos dominated global football with two Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, one LaLiga title and Spanish Super Cup apiece as well.
He boasts the best record of any Real Madrid coach in his first 70 games (51 wins, 14 draws and five defeats). During his spell in the hot seat, the team also broke the Spanish record for consecutive games scored in (73) and the longest unbeaten run (40).
Zidane was quoted as saying at his first press conference since the announcement: “I’m feeling good and am happy to be back. I’m delighted to be back working at this great club and with this squad of players. When the president called me, the first thing that I thought about was coming back and here I am. This is an important day and I’m here because I really love this club.
“It’s a big challenge and I’m not thinking about the past because if I had done, I wouldn’t have come back. It’s about more than returning to Real Madrid. I’m really raring to head up this second project and serve the president, the club and the fans. I’m really raring to return and nobody can take my excitement to coach this team and ensure that they perform better away from me. I’m back in charge of the project with renewed energy after nine months out. I’m ready to once again experience what it means to coach Real Madrid and be at this great club, which I really love.
“We’re going to change things and we’ll have to do that for next season. We’ve got the time to do what we need to do at the club, but we’ve now got 11 games to go and we want to finish on a high.
“I want to be amongst the players. I’ve followed the whole season and I think that the players are the first ones to admit that it’s been a difficult year but you can’t always win. That’s the way things go in football and sometimes you have to accept change. Sometimes you go through rough patches and that’s what’s happening at the moment. It’s been tough to watch from afar but I want to be amongst the players, continue to work hard and make us competitive again”.
