Considered one of the all-time greats as a player, Zinedine Zidane was lauded with similar respect as a manager yesterday after making more Champions League history with Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants’ 3-1 win over Liverpool on a dramatic evening in Kiev allowed Zidane to become the first coach ever to win the Champions League in three consecutive seasons.
Incredibly, Zidane has broken new ground in less than three full seasons in charge after being promoted from his position as coach of Real’s youth team to his first managerial role at the highest level in January 2016.
“You can’t help but admire what he has done,” France manager Didier Deschamps, who won the World Cup as a player with Zidane in 1998, told French TV station TF1.
“Already as a player he was an extraordinary player. He’s had a second life as a coach and he is already an extraordinary coach. Achieving three Champions League wins is fabulous.”
Zidane is expected to one day manage France himself, but will be in no rush to move on from Madrid having drawn level with Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti as the only men to oversee three European Cup triumphs.
The 45-year-old also won the trophy as a player for Real, when they beat Bayer Leverkusen in 2002 in Glasgow.
“Zinedine is the architect of this glorious and possibly unrepeatable era,” said Madrid sports daily AS.
Zidane has now won nine trophies since replacing Rafael Benitez in the Santiago Bernabeu dugout in January 2016.
Guiding Real to the longest period of sustained success in Europe’s elite club competition since the 1970s means, statistically at least, his place in the pantheon of great coaches is secure.