At the 2015-16 La Liga (The Primera División) Football season Real Madrid, was stranded third in the standings. A humiliating 4-0 home defeat at the hands of Barcelona and a disqualification from the Copa Del Rey (an annual football cup competition for Spanish football teams) for fielding an illegible player left them staring at another year without a title.
Club president Florentino Perez sacked Rafa Benitez as coach and, more in desperation than anything else, called up former galactico (superstar) Zinadine Zidane to bail him out. Zidane, while an undoubtedly talented star player, was an unproven entity as a coach. (Apart from a year-long stint as assistant to Carlo Ancelotti and as B team coach with Real.)
Cut to June 2017 and the footballing world is literally at Zidane’s feet, with Perez saying the Frenchman could make Real his home for life.
Season of wins
Just take a gander at what Zidane and Real has achieved since that January — Los Blancos won the return game at the Nou Camp and chased the Blaugranas all the way to the last game of the 15-16 season and finished just a point adrift at second in the Liga; and capped off the season with yet another defeat of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final for the Unadecima.
In the 2016-17 Los Blancos continued their phenomenal unbeaten run, and broke Barcelona’s streak of 40 games undefeated. Also to fall along the way was Bayern Munich’s record of having scored an unbroken stretch of 62 games. This continued till this year’s Champions League final — Real’s record stands at 64 games and counting.
Real, in the process, also won the Liga after five-years. It also became the first team in the modern Champions League era to defend its title when it defeated Juventus and completed a double of league and European glory for the first time since 1958.
Whichever way you look at it, you realise that were it not for Zidane this would not be possible. The players are the same, but it is the way he managed the team of superstars and moulded them into thinking as team first, then self that sets Zizou apart.
Zidane is now talked of in the same breath as other legendary coaches. The next few seasons will determine his standing. But, for now Zidane can bask in what he has achieved in the last 18 months.
