Zinedine Zidane has admitted that he would be interested in coaching an Italian club amid links with the Juventus job.
Zidane hasn’t coached since leaving Real Madrid for a second time in 2021, winning a La Liga title during his second stint in charge to add to the three UEFA Champions Leagues and two FIFA Club World Cups that he won during his remarkable first stint in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu.
To date, Los Blancos are the only club which Zidane has worked for as a coach, having previously spent his final five seasons as a player in Madrid too. The former France international has been linked with a return to the club as manager in the near future, replacing Carlo Ancelotti once again as the first-team coach.
As well as Madrid, Zidane has also been linked with a return to another one of his former clubs Juventus too. Following an abysmal run of results in February – Juve won one of five games over the course of the month – Zidane has been name-dropped as a potential replacement for the under-fire Max Allegri in the summer.
Speaking DAZN this week, the footballing icon said that he is open to working in Italy as a coach in the future: “Why not? Anything could happen. I would like to coach in Italy one day.
“I am not coaching at the moment, but why not? I like Italy and I like that they love football in Italy.”
Zidane was speaking at the premiere of a documentary about his former manager at Juventus Marcello Lippi, under whom he won the Ballon d’Or award in 1998. The ex-Juve midfielder was keen to praise his former manager, calling Lippi the first coach who ever believed in him as a player.
“As a coach, I learned a great deal from both Lippi and Carlo Ancelotti. Lippi was the first coach who really believed in me. He brought me to Juve and I became the player I was thanks to him,” Zidane added.
