MADRID: Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said today he was leaving the Spanish giants in a surprise move announced just days after winning the Champions League for the third year in a row.
“I have taken the decision to not continue next year as Real Madrid coach,” the Frenchman told a hastily convened press conference, before adding he was not looking for another club to coach.
“This club deserves to continue to win and needs a change,” he said, adding that he believed the “moment has come.
“After three years the club needs another discourse, another method of working,” he stated. “I don’t see myself continuing to win this year and I am a winner, I don’t like to lose,” added Zidane, who was under contract with Real until 2020.
“I have thought a lot about this decision and I can’t go back on it.” Real beat Liverpool 3-1 in the final in Kiev on Saturday, making Zidane the first coach in history to win three successive Champions League titles.
Zidane, 45, has now won nine trophies since replacing Rafael Benitez in the Santiago Bernabeu dugout in January 2016.
Relevant pieces published earlier:
i) Jurgen Klopp is in no doubt that Zinedine Zidane has shown himself to be as good a coach as he was during a wonderful playing career, as the two men prepare to lead their Liverpool and Real Madrid sides into Saturday’s Champions League final. “If a lot of people think Zinedine Zidane doesn’t have much knowledge of tactical things – because a lot of people think that about me – that would be really funny,” Klopp told media at Kiev’s Olympic Stadium on the eve of the game. Zidane finds himself in a position to win a third Champions League title despite only becoming the Real coach in January 2016.
If he does that, the 45-year-old would equal Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti as the only coaches to have won the European Cup three times. Despite that, Zidane’s detractors see him more as a supervisor of a supremely talented squad rather than a tactical genius. Klopp, who arrived at Anfield in October 2015, added: “Zidane for me is one of the best five players of all time in football. “Since two and a half years now, I am longer at Liverpool than he is at Real Madrid and he can win for the third time the Champions League. “You have to expect he is brilliant like he was as a player. His players and he seem to work like a clock from Switzerland.” (25th May 2018)
ii) Real Madrid sacked coach Rafael Benitez after just seven months in charge on Monday with club legend Zinedine Zidane replacing the Spaniard. “We have taken the difficult decision to rescind the contract of Rafael Benitez as a coach,” said Madrid president Florentino Perez. “The Real Madrid board has decided to name Zinedine Zidane as coach of the first team.” However, the club didn’t announce the length of Zidane s contract. (5th of January, 2016)
