Real Madrid Replaces Rafael Benítez With Zinedine Zidane as Coach

[ghost2509]

nytimes.com
By RAPHAEL MINDER
JAN. 4, 2016


MADRID — Real Madrid replaced one of Europe’s most experienced coaches with a largely untested one on Monday, firing the unpopular Rafael Benítez, who had spent only seven months on the job, and appointing Zinedine Zidane.

Zidane, a World Cup winner with France and a Champions League winner with Real Madrid, had most recently been in charge of Madrid’s second team. But Zidane, 43, has never coached in any of Europe’s top leagues. He started coaching Castilla, Real Madrid’s B team, in 2014, having spent a year on the first-team bench as an assistant to Carlo Ancelotti, the manager at the time.

Zidane, considered one of the best attacking midfielders ever, ended his playing career as one of Real Madrid’s so-called Galácticos, the world stars recruited by the club’s longstanding president, Florentino Pérez, for record-setting costs.

Real Madrid and Benítez, who joined the club in June on a three-year contract, had been under mounting pressure since November, after the team fell off the pace in the Liga standings and was crushed at home, 4-0, by its archrival, Barcelona, in the Clásico.

In that match, a large section of Real Madrid fans also called for the resignation of Pérez, but he vowed to continue at the helm and to retain Benítez, reiterating his trust in him as recently as three weeks ago.

In a brief news conference Monday, however, Pérez introduced Zidane as the person who “knows better than anybody else what it means to be leading the first team of Real Madrid.” Pérez concluded by turning to Zidane and telling him, “I know that for you the word ‘impossible’ doesn’t exist.”

The task facing Zidane, 43, may not be impossible — Real Madrid is only 4 points out of first place and remains a leading contender to win the Champions League — but it will be a tall order for a newcomer to top-flight coaching, particularly because he is taking charge of one of the world’s most expensive teams, filled with players with considerable talent but sizable egos.

Zidane had been rumored as a possible replacement for Benítez since the Clásico defeat, but he had told reporters that he was in no hurry to take on such a job and that he felt that “a lot is missing before reaching the first team” of Real Madrid.

On Monday, Zidane said he felt more emotional than when he signed as a player for Real Madrid from Juventus in 2001, for what was then a record fee of 75 million euros, about $81.2 million. “I will give everything so that the team wins something this year,” he said.

Zidane had been expected to take more time before making such a leap forward after a lackluster first season at Castilla, which failed to win promotion last summer from Spain’s third division, known as Segunda B. Castilla is used by Real Madrid mostly to foster homegrown talent — Zidane’s 20-year-old son, Enzo, is a midfielder on the squad — and adolescent star signings like Martin Odegaard, a Norwegian who turned 17 last month.

Still, Madrid will be hoping that Zidane can make the kind of successful transition from player to coach achieved by some of its other former players, including Vicente del Bosque, the coach of the Spanish national team, who was ousted as Madrid’s coach by Pérez in 2003 despite twice winning the Champions League title.

More recently, the other giant of Spanish soccer, Barcelona, has been led to Champions League and Liga titles by two coaches who previously played for the club: Pep Guardiola and now Luis Enrique.

Pérez made his move after Real Madrid tied, 2-2, at Valencia on Sunday, a result that left the team third in La Liga, 4 points behind the leading team, Atlético Madrid, and 2 points behind Barcelona, which has played one fewer game.

Before joining Madrid in June, Benítez, 55, had coached some of the biggest teams in England and Italy. He made his debut as coach in Spain’s top division 20 years ago when he took charge of Valladolid.

He eventually shot to prominence at Valencia, with which he twice won the Liga championship, and then left Spain for Liverpool, where he won the Champions League in a dramatic comeback against A.C. Milan in the 2005 final.

Benítez later took charge of Inter Milan, returned to England as coach of Chelsea, and headed back to Italy to spend two seasons in Naples.

Real Madrid has endured some embarrassing setbacks this season beyond the Barcelona rout, particularly its disqualification from the Copa del Rey in Spain after fielding an ineligible player against lowly Cádiz.

Pérez, 68, has been president of the club since 2009, after a spell in charge from 2000 to early 2006. While insisting as recently as last month that Benítez would not be ousted, Pérez had forecast that Zidane would eventually coach Madrid, having repeatedly voiced his admiration for a player whom he has described as his most emblematic “galactic” signing.

On Monday, Pérez noted that Zidane was familiar with many of the star players of the current team, having worked as an assistant coach two years ago, when Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo and Gareth Bale scored for Madrid in the Champions League final against its crosstown rival, Atlético.

Zidane became a national hero after leading France to its first World Cup triumph, in 1998, scoring two goals in the final against Brazil in Paris.

He joined Madrid three years later from Juventus and repaid part of that investment with a spectacular volley that delivered the winning goal in the 2002 Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen.

He retired as a player in 2006 after a far more controversial performance in a World Cup final, when he was sent off for head-butting an Italian player, Marco Materazzi, in the final in Berlin.

Zidane developed his coaching skills as an assistant to Ancelotti, who in 2014 led Madrid to its 10th Champions League trophy. But after a more disappointing second season, during which Madrid watched Barcelona sweep all of the main trophies, Ancelotti joined the long list of coaches ousted by Pérez.

Still, in the game of musical chairs that is European soccer coaching, Ancelotti is set to make another comeback, as coach of Bayern Munich, the German champion, after Guardiola recently announced that he would leave the team at the end of the season.

[iLikeBigButtz]

This was one of the most predictable managerial casualties of the season. Benitez was never a good fit for a club like Real Madrid. He is a negative, defensive manger but the Madridistas want to see their team playing entertaining, attacking football which is not what Benitez is about.

[IronMike23]

One of the great mistakes of Real Madrid: sacking of Ancellotti.

[kaldra17]

a big risk for zidane, if he fails it may hurt his career badly, however you can say the same about pep guardiola in his times in barcelona, and he will be remembered forever

[JenJolie]

thought this was bad move, champions league might prove otherwise