How the pragmatic beast of Real Madrid killed the romantic saint Zinedine Zidane
Few jobs in the world are as stress-laden in football as the Real Madrid manager. There are arrivistes to deal with, there’s always the shadow of a certain Florentino Perez looming large, there’s the most barbarian fanbase demanding unprecedented levels of success, and finally, there’s the ever-present success of FC Barcelona, the comparison with which has the final say on how good – or bad – you are.
By the time you’re done battling it out with all of them, there’s the realization that it’ll all come back soon enough, this time more fierce, more intense and more brute. After three years of headbutting these evils at work in Madrid, the red card was always inevitable for Zinedine Zidane – even if it was him who chose when to be sent off.
"“I am doing this for the good of this team, for this club,” Zidane said. “It would have been difficult for me to win again next year. There have been good moments, but also difficult times. I do not forget that. And at this club, you must know this: I do not want to start a season and have a bad time, I want to end with Real Madrid when everything is going well. I did it as a player, and now again as a coach. This the right moment to end things well.”"
The obvious questions are doing their fair share of rounds again. While some think it’s Perez exercising his usual right, others feel that something terrible happened for a three-time European conquerer to announce his shock departure in an underwhelming manner – at least that’s what it felt like.
The truth, to be fair to President Perez, is that Zidane simply ran out of fuel while trying to keep up with this fast-paced club that sucks every ounce of energy from within. The Frenchman may be an Arabian Horse himself, but he was racing a Cheetah, one that considers slowing down as an insult.
The horse may have done unbelievably well to match the levels of his counterpart, but there was always going to be one winner here – and you know who it is.
Football fans are all romantics, and being so, they’d have all loved Zinedine Zidane to continue his adventures at the Santiago Bernabéu for an eternity; after all, what he had been doing only seemed possible with some divine interventions lending a helping hand.
Next: Real Madrid: Why Zinedine Zidane stepping down as manager makes sense
But again, the business end of football has no place for romantics at all. The nature of the sport means that it is no longer about love affairs, but agreements that are bound to end and torn to shreds as soon as you see that there’s no scope for extracting more. This is exactly what happened here.
Zidane would have signed a lifetime’s contract if it was the romantic within him that was more powerful, but he was wise enough to realize that when the pragmatic beast of Real Madrid will fully take charge, all love would soon be lost, that reverence would turn into repugnance, and that the dynasty will be demolished when desgaste takes over.
The signs of a demise were there, and he rightly chose not to fight the beast, consequently keeping his own beauty intact, untouched and pristine.