Zidane fires shots at Perez following Madrid departure

Zinedine Zidane has fired a huge parting shot at Real Madrid president Florentino Perez following the coach’s resignation last week, claiming the club no longer had faith in him.

Perez has had a disastrous year following the humiliation of his failed European super league project and the desperation to cling onto it, and he’s now lost one of his most successful managers.

Zidane, who left Real Madrid as their head coach for the first time in 2018 after three consecutive Champions League wins, has addressed an open letter to supporters today following the club’s first trophyless season in over a decade.

In a letter in Madrid-based sports daily AS, Zidane said: “I have now decided to leave and I want to properly explain the reasons. I’m going, but I’m not jumping overboard, nor am I tired of coaching. 

“In May 2018 I left because after two and a half years, with so many victories and so many trophies, I felt the team needed a new approach to stay at the very highest level. Right now, things are different. I’m leaving because I feel the club no longer has the faith in me I need, nor the support to build something in the medium or long term.”

The legendary Frenchman then alluded to the pressure he was put under after runs of poor results, pointing the finger at Perez.

“I want there to be respect for what we have achieved together,” Zidane said. “I would have liked my relationship with the club and the president over the past few months to have been a little different to that of other coaches. I wasn’t asking for privileges, of course not, just a little more recollection. 

“These days the life of a coach in the dugout at a big club is two seasons, little more. For it to last longer the human relationships are essential, they are more important than money, more important than fame, more important than everything. They need to be nurtured. 

“That’s why it hurt me so much when I read in the press, after a defeat, that I would be sacked if I didn’t win the next game. It hurt me and the whole team because these deliberately leaked messages to the media negatively influenced the squad, they created doubts and misunderstandings.”