Raul admits he didn’t expect former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane to become a Coach. ‘He was uncommunicative…’
Zidane replaced Rafa Benitez on the Santiago Bernabeu bench in January, Raul telling AS that when they shared a locker room the former France international didn’t appear that interested in the game.
“Zidane? It was just a feeling I had. He was uncommunicative…I don’t know. I didn’t see him as a Coach. Sometimes you see players discuss aspects of the game with others and he didn’t. But it was like a process. He was in different areas of Madrid, then with Carlo Ancelotti…in the end he decided he wanted to be a Coach,” Raul noted.
“He went to Castilla and the opportunity has come. Now they’re all very happy. And what I can say is that since he joined the first team I see him more as a Coach.
“Why is it so difficult to coach Madrid? There’s a lot of media pressure and above all, to manage the dressing room with so many important players in which everyone thinks they should play, but, on the other hand, that’s how it should be, because it’s not easy. Zidane has done a great job in that. He’s already experienced it with Carlo Ancelotti.
“His great success was to make the players believe in their quality and to send the message that by everyone working together, it would be easy to win the Champions League and difficult for anyone to beat them.”
