Zidane Breaks Silence On Why He Quit Real Madrid

Former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, who quit the club last week, has revealed why he resigned.

The Frenchman handed his resignation after the team’s final game of the season against Villarreal and had been tight-lipped on the reasons behind his second departure from Los Blancos until now.

In an open letter to Madrid fans, as published by Spanish outlet AS, the 48-year-old said he left his post after feeling that club president Florentino Perez has lost faith in him. He wrote:

I have now decided to leave and I want to properly explain the reasons.

I’m going, but I’m not jumping overboard, nor am I tired of coaching. In May 2018 I left because after two and a half years, with so many victories and so many trophies, I felt the team needed a new approach to stay at the very highest level.

Right now, things are different. I’m leaving because I feel the club no longer has the faith in me I need, nor the support to build something in the medium or long term.

… I would have liked my relationship with the club and the president over the past few months to have been a little different to that of other coaches.

I wasn’t asking for privileges, of course not, just a little more recollection.

These days the life of a coach in the dugout at a big club is two seasons, little more. For it to last longer the human relationships are essential, they are more important than money, more important than fame, more important than everything.

They need to be nurtured. That’s why it hurt me so much when I read in the press, after a defeat, that I would be sacked if I didn’t win the next game.

It hurt me and the whole team because these deliberately leaked messages to the media negatively influenced the squad, they created doubts and misunderstandings.

Zidane won a total of eleven titles as Real Madrid head coach, but he failed to win a trophy in his last season.