The uncertain futures of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo will have contributed to the Zinedine Zidane’s decision to resign as Real Madrid manager, Guillem Balague said.
Zidane announced his exit in a press conference on Thursday, just days after becoming the first coach to win three consecutive Champions League titles.
And Sky Sports’ Spanish expert Balague, believes Bale and Ronaldo’s comments after the match in Kiev, would have been taken into account.
“Cristiano Ronaldo instead of celebrating with his team mates decided to talk about his future, and there were doubts about the future of Gareth Bale,” Balague said.
“This will have a big influence on Bale, the disappearance of Zidane.
“All in all, he felt that the distance between players and manager, the authority of the manager, had been hurt. That is why he had to leave.
“It has caught everyone by surprise. Zidane told the president yesterday and told the players in a message today. He has spoken to Sergio Ramos, and intends to talk to the other captains in the next few hours. He felt he had to speak to one of the other leaders.
“I don’t think he will retire as a coach – he has aspirations to coach the France national team at some point.
“He insists on the idea of how demanding it is to be the manager of Real Madrid and he once it is not working in the way he wants, he feels it is time to move.
“He senses that the players need something new, they need a new voice. To actually manage the situations that are coming up now, situations like Ronaldo and Bale, these players have been complaining, Zidane probably feels that if the players do not want to talk to me, they are not listening to me, I am not the one to take all that on board and change the dynamics. He feels it is up to someone else to come in and deal with it.
“Not that it is impossible to deal with, but he feels that the dynamic has changed to a point where, it goes back to Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, where he said ‘we will hurt each other if we continue’, and Zidane feels the same. He has taken the team to nine out of 13 titles, what else is there to win?”
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