Zinedine Zidane said Wednesday that leading Real Madrid to the La Liga title in a stop-start season at the mercy of coronavirus was “the best day of my professional life”.
The 48-year-old French football icon insisted it will remain a memorable day even in a career which includes winning the 1998 World Cup as a player as well as three Champions League titles on the trot in his first stint as head coach.
The only setback in the season was a Champions League last 16 exit at the hands of Manchester City.
“We set the goal (of winning La Liga) very high,” Zidane told AFP.
“After the (coronavirus) confinement, knowing that perhaps we were not going to start playing again, because that’s what was going on, finally to have taken La Liga, for me it was my happiest day.
“Even if we always want to say that the Champions League, yes, it’s great, it’s magnificent, I don’t want to compare. When we won this complicated, this very difficult La Liga, it was really the best day of my professional life.”
Zidane added that he would never rule out at some stage taking charge of the French national team.
However, it’s not something that is on his immediate horizon which is not surprising given that present incumbent Didier Deschamps has already won the 2018 World Cup from the coaching hot seat.
“I said it a dozen years ago: if I am a coach, why not one day train the France team?” Zidane told AFP.
“It is not new. Even Didier Deschamps knows it because it was he who announced it.
“We all have a story and my story with the France team, it was beautiful until my last game. With ups and downs, but my story was beautiful.
“If one day it has to continue, it will happen naturally. What will happen will happen.”
Zidane won 108 caps as a player with the French team, playing in the 1998 World Cup winning side.
However, his international career ended in disgrace when he was red carded in the 2006 final against Italy.
Zidane, playing his cards close to his chest at his football school at Aix-en-Provence, admitted that he had no grand plan for the future.
“I don’t have a career plan. I enjoy training today just as I did when I was a player. When it doesn’t work out, or something has to be done, I’ll do it differently.”
