Manchester United finally have closure from Zinedine Zidane. The three-time Champions League-winning head coach has acknowledged that coaching the France national team is the only thing he has wanted to do since leaving Real Madrid five years ago.
Zidane's Offers and Language Barrier
United were credited with an interest in Zidane whenever they made a managerial change during that period. However, he never even came close to taking charge at Old Trafford in truth, despite always being available during that time. Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all came and went without any indication that Zidane would replace them.
It always seemed a non-starter due to his lack of fluency in English, which he acknowledged during an interview with L'Equipe two years ago. "Would I want to go to Manchester [United]?" Zidane asked. "I understand English, but I'm not completely fluent in it. I know that there are coaches who go to clubs without speaking the language, but I work in a different way."
New France Role Brings Closure
Fast-forward to today (Tuesday), and Zidane is still talking about winning. "I will give everything so that this team can win," he said during a press conference announcing him as France's new head coach. Reflecting on his time out of coaching, Zidane said: "I had some offers during the five years I was away to take charge of a club, but I turned them all down for the France team. It was the only thing I wanted to do."
His words provide closure this summer. They may not have at the start of this year, around when United reluctantly sacked Amorim and turned to Michael Carrick as an interim appointment. Given how last season ended, there is little appetite for anyone other than their former midfielder to coach this team.
The announcement of Zidane's appointment coincidentally comes on Carrick's 45th birthday. Zidane was barely a year older than Carrick when he took over from Rafael Benitez a decade ago, in January 2016, on a similarly vague length contract. That first season ended with Madrid winning the Champions League, something Carrick had no chance of doing, which shows the different situations they came into. Zidane repeated the trick in his first full season, something that United's coach has given them the possibility of doing, however unlikely, in this coming campaign.
