The French newspaper L’Équipe has Zinedine Zidane on its front page this Friday to explain the plans that the former Madrid coach has, now without a team after leaving Real Madrid at the end of last season, despite having a one-year contract and saying goodbye with an open letter to Real Madrid published by AS in which he gave his reasons for leaving, especially focusing on the little support he had felt from the white club.
Now, L’Équipe is putting the focus on the French team bench, an old Zidane goal that now gets closer than ever. Not for now, because the French Federation, in the mouth of its president, Noël Le Graët, has already confirmed that Didier Deschamps it will continue at least until the World Cup in Qatar, but immediately afterwards. The early elimination of France in the European Championship (in the round of 16 against Switzerland) set off alarms in the neighboring country, but Deschamps has a contract and credit after having led France to the final of Euro 2016 and the title in the World Cup. Russia 2018. However, after Qatar 2022, it is very likely that the time for Zizou in France will come.
The French newspaper points out as reasons for Zidane’s departure in Madrid the enormous media pressure he felt, with four press conferences weekly that ended up exhausting him; likewise, it portrays a hard-working lifestyle in Zizou, with regular 12-hour shifts in Valdebebas. Zidane maintains his residence in Madrid (he still has two children, Theo and Elyaz, in the white quarry) and has paid special attention to France in this European Championship: “Zinedine follows closely the ‘bleus’. They are forever in his heart, he is willing to do many things for them, as he demonstrated with his return in 2005, “explains a source close to the coach.
In fact, L’Équipe says that Zidane has been regularly rejecting proposals to return to training clubs, mostly from England, the Persian Gulf countries and Asia, some offers with eight-figure salaries. He does not want to go back into the work dynamics of a club for the moment, he prefers to rest and wait for the moment to take over France, a moment that he knows is just around the corner. Deschamps, in fact, already gave his blessing to Zizou as a relief. In the coach’s eyes, there are four teams that will always have their preference when taking over: Bordeaux, Juventus, Madrid and France.
Of course, when you go to France you should know that your emoluments will not be even remotely those you received in Madrid or those that you have been rejecting in recent weeks: Deschamps charges 2.2 million per year, bonuses for results and separate image rights. Le Graët has already confirmed that, when Deschamps leaves, Zidane is his first choice and the Marseille man does not seem to have a problem waiting until Christmas 2022 to take over his next project.