Zidane preparing for a ‘smooth divorce’ with Real Madrid as Juventus call him to return

Zinedine Zidane’s departure from Madrid seems slightly more likely with every passing day as Juventus go over possible Andrea Pirlo’s successor options. We will get some answers as soon as La Liga’s exciting title race draws to a close in the coming weeks – answers about who will rule Spain and answers on the future of the Frenchman.

Real Madrid have always felt like Zidane’s natural home. An elite club where Zidane won many trophies as a player, in the city and the country he embraced. But there are other places where Zizou would feel at home – and one of those is Turin.

Tired of being questioned all the time despite all the trophies he’s won for Los Blancos, Zidane may opt not to stay for the entirety of his contract, which has another year to run. After almost two years on the bench of the Madrid club (from January 2016 to June 2018 and since March 2019), the former France international midfielder opened the door for a move. Last Saturday, he publicly said that he wouldn’t pose a problem to Real Madrid. In other words, if the club would prefer to part ways with him – he’d not stand in their way and would grant them a clean break.

The Marseille-born legend has options. He might decide to take a break from football, the same way he’s done between June 2018 and March 2019 – and wait for the place of the French national team head coach to become available. The second option would be to join another club he loves – Juventus.

Zizou played for the Italian giants between 1996 and 2001 and has always said that it was a hugely important part of his career, the place he learned how to compete and the top level. Going back there almost seems like his destiny. Once he went there to reach another level as a player, he could now go there and get to another level as a tactician – by winning the Champions League for the black and whites.

Zidane became a world-class player in a Juventus shirt (©AFP)

It’s not the first time Zizou has been packing his bags for a move back to the north of Italy. In March 2019, he had verbally agreed to become Juve boss. It took a phone call from Real Madrid president Florentino Perez to change his mind and opt for a second spell in charge at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. Nevertheless, Zidane never stopped expressing his affection for the Bianconeri. Last month, he spoke about his connection to the club and hinted that he might indeed be making the switch to Turin.

“Italy is always in my heart, and Juventus has always been important to me. We’ll see.”

Zidane played two Champions League finals in a Juventus shirt and lost them both – in 1997 and 1998. Juventus competed in three more finals since and lost them all – in 2003, 2015 and 2017. The latter of their two Champions League victories was in 1996. It’s been a long wait. A wait Juventus are desperate to end. They could make Zidane their third head coach in as many seasons after two largely unsuccessful experiments with Maurizio Sarri and Andrea Pirlo.

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Juventus haven’t made any decisions yet and have given Pirlo the vote of confidence to remain at least until the end of the season. Another possibility for them is to go for current Lazio manager Simone Inzaghi, who has proven himself over five seasons at the helm of the Roman team. With his contract set to expire soon, it might prove a safer and a cheaper option for Juventus, who would be getting an Italian coach with a wealth of experience of managing in the Serie A. There have been rumours about a possible return of former boss Massimiliano Allegri, who was, rather ironically, sacked because he was deemed not good enough to win the Champions League.

Everybody is trying to keep their options open as the season approaches its end. As things stand, quite a few elite clubs could start the new campaign with vastly changed personnel.