The Legend

It all began during the 2001 award night when Florentino Perez passed on a piece of paper to this gentleman. The word reads, "do you want to play for real Madrid"? And the swift response was a Yes. Of course, it's every players dream to want to play for Real Madrid; which is arguably the best team of the century. The hunger for more trophies, and attacking football is a norm in the Real empire. Past victories mean absolutely nothing to them. And to play for this club, one has to be in his highest level. The demand for excellence is second to none as it shows in their attitude both in recruiting not just players; but the very best players, and playing attacking football. That is why a defensive minded coach might win a Champions league trophy and He'll still be shown the exit door. Over the past two decades, Real has had more than fourteen coaches coach them. The reason being that as a coach, you can't end a season in real Madrid trophyless. They are not patient in that regard. There is basically no room for error. And the players are not left out. You have to consistently be in form. If Real finds a better player than you in your position, sorry, you are gone. Remember Robinho? He was replaced with Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009. So, this gentleman went on to sign for Real Madrid as the then most expensive footballer in late 2001. He wore the famous No. 5 shirt. That was a prophecy that he was going to be involved directly or indirectly in winning five Champions league trophy.

The Man; Zidane

Before coming to real Madrid, he had won major trophies for France both in the 1998 world cup and Euro 2000, but was not as successful in winning the Champions league. Let me state this, that there are two dreams of every footballer. The first is to win the world cup trophy. The second is to win the Uefa Champions league. He had won on other stages but needed to take a bold step in fulfilling the second part of every players dream. So, he signed for Real Madrid at a fee of €77.5 million.

Zidane being unveiled by Florentino Perez

The Madrid journey

He was an instant fit at Real as He dominated possession with his style of play. He was definitely the kind of player real wanted. In his first season, he went on to win the trophy that have so eluded him; the uefa champions league. He won in style scoring the winning goal with the weaker foot. The goal is still acclaimed to be one of the best Champions league goal in history. That was the first champions league trophy and Real's ninth champions league trophy. He won it as a player. But he retired in 2006 after four more years of winning it unsuccessfully as a player. He then took a break from football and went for a coaching course. He returned to coach the youth team; Real Madrid Castilla. For me, he was not as impressive as I would like him to. Real's long awaited dream of winning the tenth champions league trophy; which they termed "La decima" became the drive for a new decade. The last time they laid hold of the trophy was 2002. Then, after the sacking of Mourinho in late 2013, Ancelloti took the reins of power as the new Real manager. He asked the castilla coach to assist him. Then came the tenth champions league title in 2014. The former player turned assistant coach has won it the second time. But Real's unforgiven nature caught up with Ancelloti in 2015 as he was shown the exit door for winning no trophy and he was replaced with Rafael Benitez; a strict fellow. Benitez spent half of the season and was quickly replaced with this assistant coach in January 2016. He went on to win the trophy three times in a row; a no mean feat at all. He had just spent two and a half years. After winning it in 2016, people accrued it to luck on his path. Then, he won it back to back, people said he was not a spectacular coach. Then, he won it the third time in a row, it was then the football world changed their mind and started respecting him. He had won it once as a player, once as an assistant coach, and three times as a coach; five times in all. I give to you the Man; Zidane.

One of the laughable quotes on social media