Zidane celebrates 50 years today, an important event before which he has agreed to break the silence of recent months. In a wide and deep 16-page interview published this morning by the newspaper L’Équipe, the player from Marseille goes through several of the most important episodes of his life on and off the pitch and also addresses some questions related to his future, now that His name is definitely moving away from the PSG bench.
The Paris option
“Coach PSG one day? Never say Never. As a footballer I had the option to go to many clubs. To almost everyone. As a manager, there are not fifty clubs that I can go to. There are two or three possibilities. This is the reality. If I come back, it’s to win. I say this with all modesty. That’s why I can’t go anywhere. Also for other reasons…”.
The language, an impediment
“When people say to me: ‘Do you want to go to Manchester?’ I answer that I understand English but I do not master it perfectly. I know there are coaches who go to clubs without speaking the language, but I work in a different way. To win, many elements come into play, it is a global context. I know what I need to succeed. And I want to do everything on my part to get to that end.”
The selection, his great dream
“I want, of course. I hope to be a coach one day. When? It’s not up to me. But hopefully I can close the circle in France. I was a player, and that was the best thing that happened to me, but as a coach that I am now, leading my country is something that is permanently on my mind”.
always ambitious
“I am a winner, without pretensions. I was not surprised to raise the three Champions with Madrid. If I hadn’t believed I was capable, I wouldn’t have taken that step. I worked hard for that reward. In the end, the victory was as beautiful in a penalty shootout, as against Juve in 2017 or the following year against Liverpool. The latter was tremendous because we had a difficult season in the league and this success put what we were as a club to the test”.
His arrival at Real Madrid as a player
“It was something that was on my mind. I had a great career at Juve, I won everything with France and at 28 I told myself that going to the Santiago Bernabéu, to the biggest team in the world, was to take another step forward. He was aware that Florentino Pérez was also interested. Everything went very quickly and we agreed. The price? €76 million. Juve had the right to ask and Real Madrid to pay”.
His current relationship with Real Madrid
“I have many ties. I go to the stadium whenever I’m in Madrid. I have a son in the locker room and I enjoy it a lot with my family. I was also recently at the Stade de France to watch the Champions League final against Liverpool”.
Daniel Gil
