Zidane: ‘It’s not the time to take over the French national team’

After his departure from Real in the summer of 2021, o Zinedine Zidane still remains off the shelves and is now turning two years old.

The French technician, who celebrated 13 titles in three and a half years in Madrid, has been the target of several sides, including Paris Saint-Germain, but has received negative reactions whenever the team approached him.

In the interview he gave to the American magazine GQ, the 50-year-old stressed that it was not the time to take over the French national team and declared that he was content with his life.

“When you’re on the bench after a season, you’re even more tired than a player. These are two conditions that have nothing to do with each other.”

I remember as a footballer I was focused on my performance and that of the team and just thinking about doing my best to help my team. As a coach you take care of 23 kids and it never stops.

When I got home my thoughts were still there (on the team). You receive all information and are responsible for the decision-making. Sometimes it drains your energy.

I love what I do and I get a lot of work to do, but every once in a while, and this has happened to me twice before, I need to switch off. Today I just enjoy my life, I have time to visit my parents when I want to, to go out to eat with my wife and kids when I’m in Madrid and to see my friends.

All of this is only possible by taking a step back. My life is still going at two hundred miles an hour but I feel good and fresh.

I don’t generally prepare things, I do what I feel. We won a lot of trophies in Madrid and I really had to take a deep breath. And after eight months, after a time that had been good for me personally, the President called me. I could have said to myself, “I did what I did. Why put me back in there? Why take the risk of doing worse?”

But I don’t calculate all this, I work on instinct. I’ve said many times: if you know the French national team as a player and then become a coach, it’s logical to think that you want to take over, but now is not the right time.