Zinédine Zidane’s unique Champions League treble with Real Madrid | OneFootball

In 2018, Real Madrid manager Zinédine Zidane became the first coach to win three straight Champions Leagues. L'Équipe notes the run owed as much to talent and hard work as to stability.

As a player he once looked cursed by finals, losing the 1996 UEFA Cup with Bordeaux and the 1997 and 1998 Champions League finals with Juventus. He then scored twice in the 1998 World Cup final, won Euro 2000, delivered the 2002 Champions League for Madrid, and bowed out in the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin.

He served Carlo Ancelotti in 2013-2014, then led Castilla until December 2015. Named on 9 January 2016, he opened with a 5-0 against La Corogne at the Bernabeu.

Then came the unprecedented sequence, the 2016 crown, 2017 in Berlin against Juventus, 4-1, and 2018 in Kiev against Liverpool, 3-1, before he stepped away. He valued continuity, keeping those who had learned to win.

He rejected the idea it was easy, saying feel for the dressing room and player minds was not enough. He leaned on constant work, desire and passion.

The treble had trade-offs, Madrid won La Liga only once in that spell, in 2017. He often worked on a tightrope amid internal rumblings and Florentino Pérez’s tendency to heed the fans. He later called the 2017 title, clinched 2-0 at Málaga, the happiest day of his professional life, crediting continuity and daily graft in what he felt was the world’s toughest league.

Source: L'Équipe