Real Madrid announced on Thursday that Zinédine Zidane has decided to quit his coaching position.
Returned in 2019 after a first start, the French coach won La Liga a few months later, before failing to glean any trophy this season.
His departure is not a surprise, when we felt for several months tired of incessant criticism and annoyed by the lack of support from his leaders, who have failed to strengthen the workforce as he wished.
This time his departure was more expected.
Not like three years ago almost to the day, when he took everyone by surprise by announcing that he was emptying his locker at Valdebebas when the party for the third Champions League in a row was not yet over .
Zinédine Zidane is no longer the coach of Real Madrid.
He met with his president Florentino Perez on Thursday, and the two sides agreed that Chichou would not honor his last year contract at the White House.
A decision that can be explained quite easily, if we take the trouble to follow the clues left by the French throughout these last months.
Fed up with being criticized all the time
It is the law of the Spanish media context, where even more than elsewhere in Europe, you can be praised and then demolished almost in the same day. Absolute genius after winning the title last season, despite Hazard's injuries, Bale and James balls and aging executives, Zidane became a good-for-nothing not even six months later, when he was unfortunate enough to lose two straight games against Alaves then Shakthar Donetsk in early December. "It's like that, it will never change," he replied then, not trying to hide his weariness.
In April, after his victory in the Clasico, he preferred to wield irony.
“I mustn't be such a disastrous trainer,” he said, smirking.
Zidane has always had to do with this lucky coach label who owed his success to his aura more than his tactical set-ups.
Finally, he will have known only one defeat in all competitions since February, but synonymous with elimination in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Chelsea.
And as Atlético did not give up for the title in La Liga… We can not wait to read what Spain thinks of his successor with a team that should not be significantly strengthened this summer.
Fed up with his old team
We do not know if they are in good faith or if they are doing it on purpose because it amuses them, but the Spanish media have always tapped on Zidane regardless of the context, namely that he had to do with a workforce unworthy of the standing of Real. The only big purchase in recent years? Eden Hazard, with the success we know. And betting more than 110 million euros on Jovic and Militao was not necessarily the idea of the century. Conversely, Pogba, the only player really claimed by Zidane, never came. Ferland Mendy yes, and his contribution has been correct, but he cannot erase everything on his own.
Result, it is still Modric, Casemiro, Kroos and Valverde who hold the team, but they no longer have their radiance of yesteryear.
In attack, fortunately Benzema was exceptional because he had to fend for himself like a grown-up, not helped by intermittent Rodrygo, Vinicius and Asensio.
The problem is, that shouldn't change much this summer.
Real finances are in the red, because of the Covid but not only.
The arrival of Mbappé, which might have been able to change the situation, promises to be more than uncertain.
We imagine that Zidane believes he has been around with this workforce, and rather ten times than one.
Tired of Florentino Perez?
Living with Florentino on a daily basis really doesn't have to be easy. The boss of Real, who estimated his Chichou "blessed by the gods" last summer and assured that he wanted to keep him "still for a long time", is sensitive to nothing other than trophies. And when things go badly, he apparently prefers to unleash little nonsense to the press on the off side rather than supporting his coach, even if he's the one he begged to come back a few months earlier.
The club's difficulties this season?
A problem with the physical preparation orchestrated by the staff, estimates for example Perez.
According to Cadena COPE, the point of no return was reached last December, when the president suggested that Zidane would not survive an elimination in C1.
A threat that has finally convinced the French that he had had his day in Madrid, even if his intimate conviction is older.
"I do not see him staying very long at Real, told us the star's most intimate journalist, Frédéric Hermel, at the end of 2019. This season, the next, and voila.
Because it's exhausting.
»Bingo Fredo.
Another project?
Andrea Pirlo already knows, he will not be entitled to a second season at the head of Juventus after abandoning the league title which had belonged to the Turin club for ten years.
Could Zidane take the vacant post?
Those who know him know that there is only this project, in a club that he knows by heart, which could make him dive again.
However, it should not be this time, the Italian press showing unanimity this Thursday to announce the return of Allegri on the bench in Turin.
No problem, the former number 21 of Juve is in no hurry.
A little break of a year and a half before taking over from DD at the head of the France team following the 2022 World Cup, it's not bad too, isn't it?
Karim back with the Blues, more beautiful the exit
Zidane hasn't won a title this season, to be sure, but by never letting go of Benzema he has his part in KB9's return to the Blues - although he has denied any direct involvement in the reunion with Deschamps.
His emotion when he saw that his striker was on the list for the Euro was not faked.
So yes, it has nothing to do with his decision, but he can leave with a feeling of duty accomplished.
Thank you Frérot for everything you have given me both collectively and personally ...
I am proud and honored to have been able to move forward and grow with the man that you are.
See you ... ❤️ #ZZ #legend #king pic.twitter.com/wkM9kNDJcC
- Karim Benzema (@Benzema) May 27, 2021
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