Ever since Zinedine Zidane left Real Madrid’s managerial post for a second time in 2021, the hope was that he would eventually make his way back to Juventus just as he did in the Spanish capital not once but twice. Maybe not immediately considering the France national team job that he now has was essentially his whenever he wanted it following Didier Deschamps’ eventual departure.
So, it made sense that connecting dots would happen no matter what.
With France set to play Italy at the San Siro on Thursday
night, Zidane was asked during his pre-match press conference about potentially managing Juventus just as Deschamps has done, albeit 20 years ago. Zidane, without much hesitation, gave a definitive yes — which may surprise some people considering the current state that the Bianconeri find themselves in. But Zidane has indeed said that he would “be happy” to be Juve’s manager one day, and that is a nice little development no matter how unlikely it seems at the moment.
Here is the full quote about Zidane and his willingness to manage Juventus in the future:
“Yes, but you never know. Marcello Lippi taught me we must never stop, we’ve always got to keep pushing. At the start I didn’t play well in Turin, the fans and the media didn’t love me.
“I suffered a little, but Lippi told me I would play for his Juve. I owe him everything. I’d love one day to be at Juventus, why not, if I continue working as a coach.”
(Source: Football Italia)
Considering Zidane is managing one of the most talented teams in the world right now, who knows how long he will actually stay there and push back any sort of potential return to the club level of coaching. If France does well and they win trophies, then it would be easy to think that Zidane — who turned 54 years old in June — stays on with his former national team for a good amount of time when you think about how less taxing it will be on him.
Then you throw in the fact that the only senior club he’s managed at in his coaching career, Real Madrid, had the kind of star power that Juventus can’t come anywhere close to rivaling unless something changes in a major way in the next few years and that is not a thing working in the Bianconeri’s favor as well.
But it’s a nice little thought process to go through. And, at the very least, Zidane has thrown something out there that will get us talking about what could be in the future while we sit here during the November international break.
