Real Madrid fired coach Rafa Benitez after only seven months on Monday and replaced him with its former star player Zinedine Zidane.
Club president Florentino Perez announced the decision at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Monday, a day after Madrid’s 2-2 draw at Valencia deepened a crisis that started with an embarrassing 4-0 home loss to rival Barcelona in November.
Madrid has won seven of nine matches since the demoralizing defeat to Barcelona but fans continued to demand the departure of Benitez.
Real Madrid is third in the Spanish league, four points behind leader Atletico Madrid and two behind Barcelona, which has a game in hand.
France football great Zidane, who was Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant in 2014 when Real Madrid won the Champions league, has been coaching Madrid’s “B’’ team in the third division.
Zidane was at the Bernabeu with his wife and four kids.
“I’m more emotional now than when I signed as a player,” said Zidane, who ended his career at Madrid in 2006.
It will be the first major coaching job for the former playmaker, whose career was marked by greatness on the field but also by his head-butting of an Italian defender in the 2006 World Cup final.
“He is clearly conscious of how tough this job is,” Perez said. “Zidane doesn’t know the word impossible.”
Zidane leaves Real Madrid Castilla in second place in the third division, with 37 points from 19 games.
Perez had supported Benitez since the Barcelona loss, saying the Spaniard “was the solution, not the problem,” to Madrid’s crisis. But fans kept showing their discontent even in an 8-0 win over Malmo in the Champions league and a 10-2 rout of Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish league. They also were not happy with the team’s embarrassing elimination from the Copa del Rey for using an ineligible player.
Zidane’s name was mentioned by Spanish media every time Real Madrid struggled. The 43-year-old former playmaker always made it clear that his ultimate goal was to coach the main team.
There had been speculation about former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho taking over at Madrid, but Perez said the Portuguese coach’s return wasn’t in the team’s plans for now.Madrid’s next match is at Granada on Sunday in the Spanish league.
Zidane promises attacking play
Zinedine Zidane promised on Tuesday to make up for his lack of coaching experience by inspiring Real Madrid to play with the same attacking flair he displayed during his playing career.
“Football with a personal touch, with attacking play, is what I’ll aim for,” the former France great said at a news conference.
“A coach is never really prepared, least of all one who hasn’t coached before. But I am motivated, excited, and that is going to ensure that things go well,” he said. “I always believe that it’s important to play attractive, but balanced football, and I am going to work to get that on the pitch.”
After coaching Madrid’s reserve team in third division for the past year and a half, he agreed to the promotion to coach the first team for the rest of this season, plus two more years.
Zidane said he would continue to play Madrid’s three star forwards — Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Gareth Bale —although the coach said Bale was not happy with Benitez’s firing.
“I understand Gareth may be upset at Rafa’s departure, but he will be treated with affection. He’s a fundamental player,” Zidane said.
Zidane previously served as assistant to Madrid coaches Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. He served under Ancelotti’s during Madrid’s Champions league title run in 2014, and he knows most of the current squad.
Spanish talk radio didn’t wait long to start making hopeful comparisons between Zidane and former Barcelona player-turned-coach Pep Guardiola.
Zidane dismissed the comparison.
“Guardiola is Guardiola, and I am going to try and do it the best I can,” he said. “I never compared myself to others as a player, and I won’t do it as a coach.”
Earlier, the club said more than 6,000 fans turned out to watch Zidane take charge during Madrid’s traditional open first practice session of the year.
But as recent predecessor Mourinho, Ancelotti, and now Benitez, all learned, Perez will accept nothing short of a major title at the end of each season. That means Zidane must find a way for Madrid to topple Barcelona as either European or Spanish champion.