Zinedine Zidane identified the Belgian in 2010. Finally he has his man and Hazard will start despite the heftiest competition“I would take Eden Hazard with my eyes closed.” Zinedine Zidane’s words are not from this week or last; they’re not from last year, the year before, or even the year before that. Real Madrid’s manager said that in April 2010, almost a decade ago, when the Frenchman was just about to return to the Bernabéu as presidential adviser and Hazard was 19 and playing for Lille. He was also, Zidane said, “the star of the future”. Now, aged 28, he is Madrid’s present, not just their latest galáctico but their first for five years. He has been a long time...
Zinedine Zidane’s exit from Real Madrid on the same day Frank Lampard took over at Derby County underlines the insanity of the world the former Chelsea midfielder is enteringFrank Lampard was minutes into his new job as Derby County manager when the news came through that a vacancy had just cropped up at Real Madrid. “He certainly quit at a good time,” Lampard said, thinking on his feet. “I don’t know Zinedine Zidane’s plans but he will want a holiday, I’m guessing, before he does anything else. You can’t beat that for going out at the top, though. Maybe that’s a lesson to us all.” Related: Frank Lampard spoke to other clubs before becoming Derby County manager Related: Zidane is...
First Guardiola and Enrique left Barcelona in need of rest and now Zidane has quit Real Madrid. The top of Spanish football has become suffocatingWhen Zinedine Zidane called time on his highly productive stint as the head of Real Madrid’s ego management department, it was interesting to reflect that this week marked the 20th anniversary of the sacking of Jupp Heynckes, eight days after he had steered the club to its seventh European Cup.The celebrations had barely finished when Lorenzo Sanz, Real’s president at the time, observed that “this would have been one of the worst seasons in recent years” if Heynckes had not ended his debut campaign by beating Juventus in the Champions League final. The German’s crime was...
Frenchman did it his way during three seasons in the Bernabéu hot seat and is leaving before his legacy can be spoiled“It might look like a strange moment but it is the right moment,” Zinedine Zidane said. And so, 878 days after taking over as manager and only five since he led them to the European Cup again, he walked away from Real Madrid. During the press conference at which he announced the decision, the president, Florentino Pérez, sitting alongside him wearing a dark suit and a darker look, Zidane was repeatedly asked if things might have been different.Mostly he said “no” and the president too insisted there was no point trying to change his mind. And yet at the...
In dragging France to the 2006 World Cup final Zidane hinted at immortality and, once they got there, he proved his mortalityThe crowd are whistling. Something has happened. Marco Materazzi is on the ground. The match commentators are confused. They think David Trezeguet has had something to do with it but they are just guessing. Their eyes, and the eyes of hundreds of millions of people around the world, were on the other end of the pitch. They did not see it.Gianluigi Buffon did. He races to the officials on the sideline, remonstrates and points fingers. By now the rest of the players have cottoned on. On the sidelines, Marcello Lippi has to be restrained. In the midst of it...