2024-07-10 12:01:17
Welcomed, once again, as a savior, after his return to the club in March 2019 to begin his second stage as coach of Real Madrid, Zidane trusted his former soldiers to straighten out a chaotic situation symbolized by a humiliating elimination against Ajax Amsterdam in the 8th finals of the Champions League (1-4).
While the Spanish press and even the club’s leaders were talking about a revolution, the double scorer in the final of the 98 World Cup that he won with France, did not betray his fellow fighters. And how can we not trust them when most of them were the great architects of the four Champions Leagues won in five years, including three consecutive? Unheard of!
After meeting a team that was shocked, orphaned and in possible reconstruction, especially after the surprise departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, Zizou took things in hand with the help of captain Sergio Ramos, one of the pillars of Real Madrid in the last decade.
And since you don’t change a winning team, Zidane has started his second “mission impossible” with the aim of regaining the confidence of talented players who were always aiming for the top. Modric (34 years old), Ramos (34 years old), Kroos (30 years old), Benzema (32 years old), Isco (28 years old), Carvajal (28 years old)…have raised their heads and rolled up their sleeves because they believe in their coach and they have convinced themselves that he will end up finding solutions to an abnormal situation.
From there they have results. Against all odds, the Whites won the Spanish Super Cup last January and proclaimed themselves champions of La Liga with eight players who had started in the last two Champions League finals in Cardiff and Kiev. You should never give up on Real Madrid, Ramos always said.
Zidane, the second most successful coach in Real Madrid history after Miguel Munoz and the only one to have won three Champions Leagues in a row, has dismissed Bale and James for “lack of collective commitment” and bet on youngsters like Vinicius, Fede Valverde or Rodrygo. And the result could not be more satisfactory.
Real and Zidane won La Liga without their star Eden Hazard, who was injured for most of the season, without Jovic, a young Serbian recruited to score around twenty goals, without Asensio, one of the most talented players in Spanish football, and with only one defensive midfielder, Casemiro.
The most successful club in Europe won the longest La Liga in the history of Spanish football with the old rockers, the same ones that the sports media and analysts buried too soon.
After eleven months (from August 17 to July 16) of a full-on race against the Barça of Messi, Suarez and Griezmann, Real Madrid holds its 34th national title, the title that most satisfies Madrid fans after a three-year absence.
The credit goes to Zidane, who has already accumulated 11 titles in 205 games as Real Madrid coach, or one title every 19 games, and to his “old guard” of course.
With the legendary French player-coach, dreams are renewed. And whatever happens, Real Madrid remains eternal.
2024-07-10 12:01:17