Zidane: Why I quit Real Madrid
Madrid, Monday
Zinedine Zidane resigned as Real Madrid coach because he felt the Spanish club no longer had any confidence in him, he wrote in an open letter on Monday.
“I’m leaving because I feel the club no longer has the faith in me I need, and doesn’t offer me the support to build something in the medium or long term,” the Frenchman wrote in the letter published in the sports daily AS.
“I am a born winner and I was here to win trophies, but beyond this there are human beings, emotions, life and I have the feeling that these things have not been valued, that it has not been understood that this is also how the dynamic of a great club is maintained,” he said.
“But everything I built on a daily basis, what I brought to the relationship with the players has been forgotten.”
“I’m leaving, but I’m not jumping ship and I’m not tired of coaching,” he added.
No trophy
Real had a disappointing season, finishing second in La Liga behind neighbours Atletico Madrid and losing to eventual winners Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals.
It was the first time that the 13-time European champions had failed to win a trophy in 11 seasons.
It is the second time that Zidane has resigned as Real Madrid coach.
The 1998 World Cup winner first took the helm in January 2016 and guided Real an unprecedented hat-trick of Champions League titles as well as a La Liga title in 2017, before abruptly quitting on May 31, 2018.
Less than a year later he returned after Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari were sacked in quick succession.
In his letter, Zidane said he left the club in 2018 because it needed “a different voice to keep itself at the very top” but this time “things are different”.
“I want what we have achieved together to be respected. I would have liked in recent months my relationship with the club and with the president (Florentino Perez) to have been a little different from that of other coaches,” Zidane said.
“I wasn’t asking for privileges, of course not, but a little more memory,” added Zidane.
Zidane’s contract with Real was set to expire in 2022 but he had repeatedly refused to confirm he would still be at the club next season. - AFP
