Zinedine Zidane Reveals Secrets to Managing Real Madrid—Which Xabi Alonso Never Learned

Only Zidane, Carlo Ancelotti and José Mourinho have reached a landmark figure of games in the 21st century.

Zinedine Zidane won three Champions League titles in a row with Real Madrid as a manager. | Alberto Gardin/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

Zinedine Zidane outlined the great care and attention he devoted to Real Madrid’s players during his trophy-laden managerial spell in the Spanish capital, explaining how he won over the ego-riddled dressing room which never quite adapted to Xabi Alonso.

Real Madrid have made 19 coaching appointments in the 21st century but only three have lasted more than 75 matches. Zidane is one of the rare figures, alongside José Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, to have found a way of consistently cajoling performances out of the glittering cast of stars at the Bernabéu.

While Mourinho took a hard line, both Ancelotti and Zidane appealed to the human character of these feted millionaires. As the affable Italian once explained: “We are managing men, not players.”

Zidane rammed home that point in a recent sitdown with his coaching assistant Hamidou Msaidie on the latter’s YouTube channel. “At Real Madrid, we were at the players’ disposal,” the former Ballon d’Or winner revealed.

“For me, that’s what makes a team strong; you’re there for the player. If you haven’t understood that, you can’t last in this profession. We’re there to support them; you have to show them that you’re there for them.”

Xabi Alonso struggled to apply his principles to his players and the club as a whole. | Image Photo Agency/Getty Images

Alonso’s ill-fated seven-month tenure was laced with speculation surrounding his failure to convince the dressing room of his ideals. Several high-profile players supposedly remained “unconvinced” by the former Bayer Leverkusen boss, who was reportedly described as “distant and unapproachable.”

Screaming, “I didn’t know I was coming to coach a nursery!” during one training session perhaps wasn’t the best way for Alonso to achieve Zidane’s quest for universal admiration.

“For the dressing room to accept what you want to implement, they have to like you,” the former World Cup winner claimed. “If the players don’t agree with everything they’re given—the training, all of that—something will always be missing. With us, I think they enjoyed it a lot on every level.”

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Zidane’s Record As Real Madrid Manager

Statistic	First Spell	Second Spell
Time Span	Jan. 4, 2016–May 31, 2018	March 11, 2019–May 27, 2021
Games	149	114
Wins (%)	105 (70.5%)	69 (60.5%)
Domestic Trophies	x1 La Liga, x1 Spanish Super Cup	x1 La Liga, x1 Spanish Super Cup
International Trophies	x3 Champions League, x2 UEFA Super Cup, x2 FIFA Club World Cup	–

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Zidane first took over Real Madrid in the middle of the 2015–16 campaign after Rafael Benítez tripped over the same hurdles as Alonso. He would win that season’s Champions League title, the first of an unprecedented three continental crowns on the spin, before returning for a second spell in 2019 which brought another league title. Rather than anything tactical, the iconic player’s first job focused on the players’ mentality.

“We instilled a lot of confidence in the players,” he recalled. “They had gone through a rough patch and needed to regain their confidence, their fitness, everything. We created a framework so they could recover everything. When a player is competitive, happy to train and go out and play, he’s sure to win three Champions Leagues.

“We had a great time. I tried to make them see that everyone was important. If they didn’t train well, they couldn’t play. If you know on Monday who’s going to play on Saturday, that’s bad. Players who don’t play aren’t going to train well.”

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Underrated Quality to Zidane’s Real Madrid

Zinedine Zidane is biding his time until he accepts a new job. | Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images

As much as stroking the egos of his players was key, Zidane was also keen to stress the emphasis he put on physical conditioning. The Frenchman appointed the infamous fitness specialist Antonio Pintus during his first spell after suffering at the hands of his grueling workouts when he was a player at Juventus.

The divisive Italian notably had his role changed by Alonso over the summer, finding himself in a less hands-on position as performance manager. One day after the coach’s departure, Pintus was restored to his previous role of conditioning coach.

Zidane was at pains to highlight how he overhauled Madrid’s fitness makeup in the middle of his first season. “We arrived at a critical point. The team wasn’t in good physical condition, and we simply had to instill in them the idea that they needed to work as a team,” he remarked.

“We were able to work during the week because we only had La Liga matches. I met with the four captains and told them what I expected from them and would see if they were committed. When they agreed to work, that was it; joy arrived. We rediscovered their motivation. Work and joy. We made them run. The physical training was fundamental.”

Try as he might, Alonso never quite got Madrid’s stars to run.

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