“We were at the service of the players”: Zidane looks back at the keys to his success at Real Madrid
The former Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane, believes that a coach cannot achieve lasting success at Real Madrid without the full buy-in of his dressing room, a barely veiled reference to Xabi Alonso’s shortened spell.
The former Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane, offered a candid reflection on the keys to success for a top-level coach, stressing the crucial importance of the human relationship with the players. According to him, no project can endure over time without a convinced and supported dressing room.
Invited to Hamidou Msaidie’s YouTube channel, Zidane explained that one of the major reasons for Xabi Alonso’s failure at Real Madrid lay in his difficulty managing the dressing room and getting his players on board. A coach who fails to convince his players is fighting a losing battle from the start, he said.
“At Real Madrid, we were at the service of the players. That’s the baseline. If you don’t understand that, you can’t stay long,” Zidane said, cited by GOAL. The former No. 10 recalled that trust, enjoyment, and the group’s buy-in had been the foundations of his successes, including three Champions League titles won at the helm of the Madrid club.
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