Zinedine Zidane faced a journalist who asked him “the same stupid questions”, this when on Sunday he saw the Frenchman in public for the first time since he resigned as Real Madrid coach.
Zidane left office on May 26 and revealed his reasons in an open letter citing “leaked messages to the media” from the club and criticizing the journalists’ focus on the “controversy.”
He was caught on camera as he went to see his son Luca play for Rayo Vallecano in the first leg of the Second Division Playoffs final against Girona in the Madrid suburb of Vallecas.
“Are you going to keep asking the same stupid questions?” Zidane said, when asked by a Gol TV reporter – a regular at Zidane’s Real Madrid weekly press conferences – if he had “gone wrong” with the publication of the letter.
🙄 Zidane still does not like the questions of @SQuirante…
# ⃣ #DirectoGolEuro pic.twitter.com/7Bx6TspQFB
– DirectoGol (@DirectoGol) June 13, 2021
“Your work is a shame,” Zidane continued. “I know you, you know me. It’s always the same. Come here. Stop (filming). Come and talk to me ”.
He then took the reporter aside to speak more privately, away from the cameras.
Zidane’s departure as Real Madrid coach in May was highly anticipated after a season in which he failed to secure any trophies, finishing second in La Liga behind Atlético de Madrid and being eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals by Chelsea. .
He had frequently refused to commit to staying next season, despite having a contract until 2022, and became increasingly visibly exasperated by repeated questioning on the subject.
In February he demanded “respect” from journalists and said they should “tell me to my face that they want me to leave.
“I have done hundreds of press conferences and unfortunately we have said very little about football,” he wrote in his open letter published in the newspaper AS last month.
“Without wanting to criticize you or teach you lessons, I would have liked that the questions were not always aimed at controversy, that we would have talked more often about the ball and especially about the players, who are and will always be … The most important thing about this game” .
Zidane has been based in Madrid since he joined the club as a player in 2001.
He was joined in the playoff game on Sunday by his wife Veronique and his oldest son Enzo, who recently signed for Rodez in French Ligue 2, to watch his second oldest, Luca, play in Rayo’s goal.
Zidane’s two youngest children, Theo and Elyaz, still play for youth teams at Real Madrid’s youth academy.