The 11 titles of Zinedine Zidane

Technical director Zinedine Zidane guided Real Madrid to the conquest of their 34th league title. This achievement in LaLiga 2019-20 meant the eleventh trophy won by the French coach in the white team, in which he began his career on the bench for first division in 2016, when he started his first stage at the resident club at the Santiago Bernabéu.

If you take into account his second time in Chamartín, Zizou has led 209 official matches, which is equivalent to the conquest of a title every 19 matches, according to a statistic published by the TransferMarket portal.

Here is a review of the details of each of his titles as a merengue technician.

An Orejona to start

In January 2016, Zizou took the place of Rafa Benítez, dismissed for poor results. During the Frenchman's appointment as the new coach of Real Madrid, President Florentino Pérez foreshadowed what the new coach would mean for the institution: "You have the capacity to dazzle Madridistas . " Zidane, in his turn, guaranteed "to put all his heart into the club to achieve a title at the end of the season". And boy did he do it.

That 2015-16 season seemed to be a failure for Real Madrid: he had stayed in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey, eliminated at the table by the improper alignment of Denís Chéryshev against Cádiz, whom he had beaten 3-1. On top of that, LaLiga was won by Barcelona with 91 points, one more than the Whites.

But Zidane responded on a European scale. In that season of the Champions League he began directing from the knockout stages; he eliminated Roma, Wolfsburg and Manchester City to settle in the grand final in which he defeated Atlético Madrid with a 6-4 on penalties, after 1-1 in 120 minutes of play.

In this way, Zinedine became the seventh winner of the Orejona, first as a player when he got it with Real Madrid in 2002 with his volley goal and, in 2016 as a coach.
For Florentino Pérez, the key for Madrid to have made the eleventh Champions League was that Zidane "gave the team experience and leadership" ; while for the newspaper El País of Spain the merit of the Frenchman was "to stop the fall of the club, return the illusion to the fans and win the Champions League. The illusion was returned, above all, to the staff ” .

A historical double (titles 2, 3, 4 and 5)

Zizou's idyll with Real Madrid was exposed in the 2016-17 campaign. In it, Real Madrid won LaLiga and retained the Champions League : a double that the club had not obtained since the 1957-58 cycle, according to a note from the EFE agency, published by lavanguardia.com.

The Spanish league, the thirty-third for Real Madrid, was achieved, according to Zidane's point of view, thanks to “the regularity” of play achieved by the club on the court: “It has been a very hard-working league” .

The conquest of the Orejona , the second consecutive one for coach Zizou , was unprecedented: since 1992, when the European Cup was renamed the Champions League , no coach or team had won the continental tournament twice in a row. This crowning satisfied the French strategist: "It is not easy to have achieved the League and the Champions League and we have achieved it with a lot of work and enthusiasm . "

One day after conquering the continent, El País posted the following challenge for Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid: "The objective for the Whites from now on is to achieve the most difficult turn: three consecutive apricots . "

That season was perfect for Zizou at Real Madrid, since in August 2016 he had won the European Super Cup and in December of the same year he conquered the Club World Cup. "If they told me that I was going to win as much as a coach, I would not have believed it," said the Frenchman when he won his fourth title of the cycle.

With those numbers, the eyes of the football world were on the strategist of the Chamartín club. For example, the English newspaper The Guardian highlighted that "Zinédine Zidane, as a coach, is already beating Zidane the player . " The prestigious newspaper added: "The Real Madrid coach does not say much, but he knows how to listen to people, and his second victory in the Champions League underscored how in tune he is with his players . "

Zizou, three-time European champion (titles 6, 7, 8 and 9)

For the 2017-18 cycle at the local level, Zizou's Madrid stayed third in LaLiga and in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, despite winning the Spanish Super Cup. But at the international level he won the European Super Cup, the Club World Cup and the Champions League, the third for him and Real Madrid consecutively.

With the conquest of the Spanish Super Cup, on August 16, 2017, – days after having achieved it -, elespectador.com highlighted that Zidane had won "a title with Real Madrid every 84 days" . Meanwhile, the Mundo Deportivo newspaper, with a marked tendency towards Barcelona, the club that the whites beat in that final, sentenced Zidane: “Final that plays, final that Madrid ends up winning. He is touched by the magic wand of the trainers ” .

El Espectador's text focused on a review of what the French star had done on the club bench and concluded it with a premonition: “In December, Zinedine Zidane will be able to continue expanding his record when the Madrid team seeks to repeat the World Cup title Clubs Zizou is making history. And he wants more ” .

Indeed, the former player from clubs like Juve and Real Madrid himself guided the Whites to retain the World Cup in December 2017 and the following year the Champions League , this for the third time in a row, the thirteenth for the club. "Not even in my best dreams had I imagined something like this," the Frenchman told the media, after being crowned champion of Europe.

Eleconomista.es highlighted that the Frenchman had become a legend, "in case he was not yet, by becoming the first coach to win the European Cup-Champions League in three consecutive editions"

The newspaper recalled that the French strategist had equaled in English Bob Paisley and Italian Carlo Ancelotti titles, but contrasted "these did not succeed consecutively . "

Days later, Zidane announced his resignation from office. By then, despite the conquest, the relationship between the locker room and the coach was a little worn, in addition, it was very heavy to have finished the league in third position in the general table. "This team must keep winning and needs a change for that. After three years he needs another speech, another work methodology and that is why I have made this decision, ” said the Frenchman in his farewell.

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The Clarín newspaper in Argentina analyzed that ZZ's departure was due to the fact that he had lost "the desire to give explanations" , since "no defeat is so serious as to explain every minute why it happened . " Nor did he want to “offer reasons to support his people” , that is, he was tired of having to explain why he had banked this or that player. In addition, he was annoyed at the selfishness of Cristiano Ronaldo, "who referred to his contract before the Olympic return , " according to the publication.

Zizou left Real Madrid, but his achievements were highlighted by his managers, one of them was Captain Sergio Ramos, who wrote on Twitter: “Thank you for two and a half years of football, work, love and friendship. You leave but your legacy is already indelible. One of the most successful chapters in the history of our beloved @realmadrid ” .

Returns to the rescue (titles 10 and 11)

Given the poor results of the club under the orders of Julen Lopetegui and after Santiago Solari in the 2018-19 campaign, Zinedine Zidane returned to Real Madrid in March 2019, 284 days after his resignation. The ABC newspaper wrote that the Frenchman was back at his house "to try to redirect an injured team after some terrible weeks . "

In his presentation, the successful French coach said that his return to Chamartín was the result of a phone request from Florentino Pérez: “And since I love this club very much, here I am. I couldn't say no . "

And although it was not enough to win LaLiga 2018-19, the only tournament for which he could fight, in the new 2019-20 cycle he increased his personal record as coach of Real Madrid by conquering the Spanish Super Cup and LaLiga, the thirty-fourth for the club.

After winning the Spanish Super Cup in January 2020, Libertaddigital.com labeled Zidane as "the lord of the finals: nine titles out of nine possible" and finished: "The Frenchman has conquered ten titles as coach of Real Madrid" , if you take into account  LaLiga of 2017.

Months later, in a slow league as a result of COVID-19, Real Madrid of the French strategist was crowned champion of the Spanish championship, an achievement that pleased Zizou: "The feeling is tremendous because what the players achieved, with 10 games in a row, is awesome; It is a team victory, ” said the coach, referring to the streak of consecutive wins from date 28 to 37.

In statements published by Marca Claro, Zizou admitted that this league conquest made him "happier than the Champions" and forcefully assured: "We have been the best because we are the ones who have scored the most points and that's it . "

For the Spanish journalist Alfredo Relaño, what the French coach achieved in his first full season of his second stint at Real Madrid is "a masterpiece of a superior coach" , who arrived midway through the previous campaign to take over " a group with worn air, drunk of titles and self-sufficiency ” and that seemed to require “ a deep renovation ” . But practically with the same template, "Zidane has made this title . "

Zidane's record can still be increased this year, for now he is still alive in the Champions League , whose final will be played on August 23, 2020 and Zinedine Zidane will want to play it and win it.