Real Madrid's Impressive Pathway Offers Progression from Key Players to Managers
Zinedine Zidane took over as Real Madrid first-team head coach almost one year ago and has since gone on to win the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup, sit top of La Liga and equal the club's all-time record for consecutive matches unbeaten, a record he'll hold outright if Los Blancos beat Deportivo La Coruna at the weekend.
All told, it has been a pretty good first almost-12 months in the job for the former French playmaker, who was already a club legend from his playing days.
For a club not known for their long-lasting relationships with managers, or for having any real connection with coaches at the club making progression through the system, Zidane could be seen as something of an anomaly—or, perhaps, the starting point of a new approach, for he's not the only trainer at the club who has enjoyed a pathway from playing days to coaching.
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Zinedine Zidane
He's not the only one, but he is the biggest name and at the top of the food chain. Zidane didn't take the role by chance, though; he has served Madrid in various capacities since his playing days ended, days that came to a close on the international stage after his final club season with Los Blancos.
Zizou, as he was often referred to at the time, spent the last five years of his career at the Santiago Bernabeu, patrolling the midfield creative zones from the left or the centre, depending on the manager at the time, always an aggressive presence with amazing vision and perhaps the best close control on the planet for a spell.
He won one league title and the Champions League as a player, wearing the No. 5 at Madrid, before retiring after the 2006 FIFA World Cup final with France in which he was sent off.
It took some time for Zidane to then re-incorporate himself at the Bernabeu, becoming sporting director for a short period in 2011 before moving to the dugout to learn his new trade. Zidane was Carlo Ancelotti's assistant as Madrid triumphed once more in Europe in 2014, before taking over as head coach of the B team—Real Madrid Castilla—in 2014.
A grievance over missing coaching qualifications meant he was initially banned for three months, but Zidane forged ahead with his work and received the UEFA Pro licence in 2015.
Of course, it was less than one year later that Rafa Benitez was sacked and Zidane promoted from Castilla to Real Madrid's first team, where he has immediately led a successful charge to better results, if not always with the dominance and high level of performance that fans hope for.
Perhaps it will come in time, but it looks as though Zidane's team will be adding at least two more pieces of silverware this season: The Club World Cup is up for grabs later this month, and Real look in great shape to secure La Liga.
Santiago Solari
Zidane, the trailblazer perhaps: but his place and possibly the start of a train of succession for Real Madrid has already been filled.
Solari operated on the left for both Atletico and Real Madrid during his playing days—a left-back when needed but more effective as a winger. Coincidentally, Solari spent the same period of time at the Bernabeu as Zidane, but he joined and left one season earlier. Two league titles and the same 2002 Champions League came the Argentinian's way, before he moved to Inter Milan, a handful of South American clubs and retired in 2010.
Only a few years later, Solari was back in Madrid—this time as a youth coach.
The Argentinian has been working with the younger age groups at Real since 2013 and has made steady progress up the coaching ladder, winning championships with both Cadete A and B teams (typically under-15 and under-16) before taking over as Juvenil B boss from another former player, Ruben de la Red, in 2015.
Thereafter, Solari has been one of the beneficiaries of Zidane's ascension: when the Frenchman moved from Castilla to first-team duties, Luis Miguel Ramis took his place at Castilla, which left a vacant spot at Juvenil A. Solari was the natural choice to bump up a level, and when Ramis left Castilla in the summer, it was Solari again who received a quick promotion.
So far, it hasn't been plain sailing in La Segunda B, with Solari's team in eighth and trailing the playoff spots by four points at present, but with more than half the season remaining, there's still plenty of time for the season to take an upturn.
Perhaps of more poignant interest is that as players graduate through the setup at Madrid, there's now a continuation of coaches for them, a familiar name and style of management, and one who knows what it takes to make the final, hardest step of all: progressing from Castilla player to Real Madrid first-teamer.
Guti
Of course, progression for Solari has meant opportunities opening up further down the chain, and that's where the next in line comes in: Jose Maria Gutierrez Hernandez, better known during his playing days as Guti.
The mercurial, if inconsistent, midfielder was a creative force for the team for years, coming through the ranks as a youth player and going on to make over 500 appearances, winning La Liga five times and the Champions League on three occasions along the way. He's a club hero, leaving only for the final two years of his career to play for Besiktas.
Guti retired in 2012 and took only a year to rejoin Madrid as a youth coach, joining at the same time as Solari, but starting lower down the youth ranks: at Alevin level, the under-11s and under-12s. Initially only an assistant coach, as he lacked the qualifications to be head coach of any team, Guti took over the under-19s for this season—the Juvenil A team—when Solari moved up to Castilla.
As the UEFA Youth League features under-19 players, it is Guti who leads Real Madrid's team in the youngsters' version of the Champions League this season, and his side topped their group to win passage through to the knockouts in the new year.
Guti hasn't won over everybody, though: Referee Sergio Maroto was unimpressed with his touchline demeanour and criticised the head coach at the start of the season, per Sport.
Future
Real Madrid might not be a breeding ground for famous managers, rather choosing to employ them once they're already at the top of the tree, but perhaps that's in the process of changing. Fernando Hierro and Roberto Carlos have already been involved in coaching and sporting-director roles, at Real and elsewhere, while Raul is also expected to return and join the procession of coaches at some point.
Not everyone has the aura of Zidane and can immediately command respect in a dressing room and have his manner with the press, and not every good youth coach can make the transition to senior football.
But what Real Madrid are building now is the foundations for the chance of that progression to exist, ensuring continuity for the young players within the club as much as for the club itself, able to call upon people who are emotionally invested in the side with years of experience of what being part of Real Madrid means and the expectation that comes with it.
For now, much is rosy for Zidane, and there's no reason to suspect a quick fall is ahead. But when the moment comes for him to move on, by choice or through force, there's a good chance that Los Blancos no longer have to look outside the club for their next move, with a pathway and opportunity for promoting from within existing for the first time in far too long.
Given the great minds and great players who have passed through the Bernabeu down the years who could bring their own insight and experience in seasons to come, it's a potentially long-lasting and mighty chain being forged, which Zidane is only the first link of.
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