Zinedine Zidane denies rift with Mourinho

When Jose Mourinho took over at Spanish Giants Real Madrid one of his first actions at the club was to promote Zinedine Zidane from his role, as advisor to the President, to ‘special advisor’ to Real Madrid’s first team. The title, by the way, was in no way a pun associated with links to the “special one’s” self proclaimed name tag. In November 2010 the temperamental French genius accepted the job, designed especially for him to travel with the first team on a regular basis and participate in pre-match gatherings, training sessions and meetings with the head coach.

Barely 7 months later Zidane found himself in yet another position at the club he served so well as a player, when he became the new Sporting Director. Since the step up in July the Frenchman has had scarce day-to-day interaction with the first team and was reported to be unhappy with his lack of hands on involvement. Zidane has since rubbished suggestions at discontent with Mourinho moving him to the sidelines, "I have no problem with Mourinho, on the contrary, I have learned a lot from him."

The highly decorated midfielder hinted at his desire to spend more time pitch side but, also explained his notable absences from the club's Valdebebas training facility, "At Real I learned what a great club it is from the inside."

"My passion is to be on the field day to day so I have decided to return to France to study. I am studying so that I become a great coach. I believe the way to be a great coach these days is to be a great manager of the dressing-room. That is fundamental."

The notorious World Cup nutter also expressed he dream to one day mange his native national team, "I want to become the French national boss. That is the dream of every citizen of this country, but that is a long way off yet."

The English FA wouldn’t have been misguided if they had offered Zidane experience,e with the backroom staff, when head butts were flying during the England U21’s recent trip to Serbia.

image: © chelsea_nj

Simon Bunn

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