Zinedine Zidane akhirnya membuka mulut dengan mendedahkan punca dan sebab musabab yang menyebabkan beliau meletakkan jawatan selaku pengurus Real Madrid buat kali kedua.
Sebenarnya Zidane tidak membuka mulut tetapi telah mendedahkan punca permergian beliau melalui surat terbuka yang disiarkan secara eksklusif di AS.
“Kehadapan penyokong Real Madrid,
“Untuk tempoh lebih 20 tahun, dari hari pertama aku tiba di Madrid dan memakai jersi putih, kau telah tunjukkan aku kasih sayang. Aku selalu merasakan bahawa ada sesuatu yang istimewa diantara kita.”
“Aku telah mendapat satu penghormatan yang besar menjadi pemain dan jurulatih bersama kelab terhebat, tapi aku juga seorang peminat Real Madrid. Atas sebab inilah aku mahu menulis surat ini, untuk mengucapkan selamat tinggal kepada kalian dan memberi penjelasan kenapa aku meninggalkan kerja kejurulatihan ini.”
“Aku pergi, tapi aku bukan mahu melompat parti atau bukan kerana aku penat melatih. Pada Mei 2018, aku pergi kerana selepas dua tahun setengah dengan banyak kejayaan dan trofi, aku rasa pasukan perlukan pendekatan baru untuk terus kekal di tahap tertinggi.”
“Sekarng, perkara sangat berbeza, Aku pergi kerana aku merasakan kelab tidak lagi mempercayai aku, tiada sokongan untuk membina sesuatu untuk tempoh sederhana atau jangka masa panjang.”
“Aku faham bola sepak dan aku tahu apa kelab seperti Real Madrid mahukan. Aku tahu bila kau tak menang, kau harus pergi. Tapi kali ini satu perkara penting telah dilupakan. Semua aku bina dari hari ke hari dengan apa yang aku beri termasuklah hubungan dengan pemain, dengan 150 orang yang berkerja bersama dan orang disekeliling pasukan telah dilupakan.”
“Aku seorang yang dilahirkan secara semulajadi untuk menjadi juara dan aku di sini untuk menang trofi tapi apa yang lebih penting dari semua ini adalah individu, perasaan mereka dan kehidupan itu sendiri dan aku merasakan perkara-perkara ini tidak diambil peduli, di situlah terdapat kegagalan dalam memahami perkara-perkara seperti ini yang membawa kepada perkembangan kelab yang hebat. Pada satu tahap aku telah ditegur kerana perkara ini.”
“Aku mahu dihormati untuk apa yang kami capai bersama. Aku mahu hubungan aku dengan kelab dan presiden sejak beberapa bulan lalu mempunyai perbezaan dengan jurulatih yang lain.”
“Aku bukan mahu keistimewaan tapi bagilah sedikit penghargaan. Hari ini jangka hayat jurulatih di bangku simpanan kelab besar hanya dua tahun atau kurang.”
“Hubungan antara manusia kini tidak lagi penting, hakikanya ini lebih penting berbanding wang, lebih penting dari kemasyhuran, lebih penting dari segalanya. Maka mereka perlu dipupuk.”
“Kerana itulah mengapa sangat menyakitkan aku bila aku membaca berita selepas kekalahan bahawa aku akan dipecat jika tidak menang perlawanan seterusnya. Ini sangat menyakikatkan aku dan pasukan kerana pesanan ini dengan sengaja dibocorkan kepada media telah memberi kesan negatif kepada pasukan. Mereka mencipta keraguan dan salah faham.”
“Aku beruntung kerana ada sobat-sobat yang setia bersama aku sehingga hujung nyawa. Bila situasi menjadi buruk mereka selamatkan aku dengan kejayaan yang menakjubkan. Kerana mereka percayakan aku dan tahu aku percayakan mereka.”
“Sudah tentulah aku bukan jurulatih terbaik di dunia tapi aku mampu memberi kekuatan dan keyakinan yang diperlukan kepada pemain, staf kejurulatihan malah kepada pekerja yang lain. Aku tahu dengan sempurna apa pasukan perlukan.”
“Lebig 20 tahun di Madrid aku telah belajar bahawa peminat mahukan kemenangan, sudah pasti tetapi peminat mahu kami berikan segalanya dan aku boleh jamin, kami telah diberikan 100% diri kami kepada kelab.”
“Aku juga mahu mengambil kesempatan ini untuk memberi pesanan kepada wartawan. Aku telah hadir dalam beratus sidang media dan malangnya hanya sedikit sahaja kami bercakap mengenai bola sepak walaupun aku tahu korang sayangkan bola sepak keran sukan ini menyatukan kita.
“Walaubagaimana pun tanpa sebarang niat untuk mengkritik atau mengajar, aku lebih suka soalan yang tidak berkisar mengenai kontroversi yang selalu dibicarakan berbanding permainan dan juga pemain yang mana menjadi perkara penting dalam sukan ini.”
“Jangan lupakan tentang bola sepak, marilah kita sama-sama mejaganya. #KitaJagaBola.”
Wahai peminat Madrid, aku sentiasa menjadi salah seorang daripada kamu.
Hala Madrid!
Zinedine Zidane
Surat Terbuka Zidane Dalam Bahasa Inggeris
Dear Real Madrid fans,
For more than 20 years, from the first day I arrived in Madrid and wore the white shirt, you’ve shown me your love. I’ve always felt that there was something special between us. I’ve had the enormous honour of being a player and the coach of the greatest club ever, but above all I’m just another Madrid fan. For all these reasons I wanted to write this letter, to say goodbye to you and explain my decision to leave the coaching job.
When, in March 2019, I accepted the offer to return to Real Madrid after a break of eight months it was, of course, because President Florentino Pérez asked me, but also because all of you asked me every day to do so. When I met any of you in the street I felt your support and the desire to see me with the team again.
Because I share the values of Real Madrid; this club belongs to its members, its fans and the entire world. I’ve tried to follow these values in everything I have done, and I’ve tried to be an example.
Being at Madrid for 20 years is the most beautiful thing that’s happened to me in my life and I know I owe that entirely to the fact Florentino Pérez backed me in 2001, he fought to get me, to bring me here when some people were against it. I say it from the heart when I say that I will always be grateful to the ‘presi’ for that. Always.
I have now decided to leave and I want to properly explain the reasons. I’m going, but I’m not jumping overboard, nor am I tired of coaching. In May 2018 I left because after two and a half years, with so many victories and so many trophies, I felt the team needed a new approach to stay at the very highest level. Right now, things are different.
I’m leaving because I feel the club no longer has the faith in me I need, nor the support to build something in the medium or long term. I understand football and I know the demands of a club like Real Madrid. I know when you don’t win, you have to leave. But with this a very important thing has been forgotten, everything I built day-to-day has been forgotten, what I brought to my relationships with the players, with the 150 people who work with and around the team.
I’m a natural-born winner and I was here to win trophies, but even more important than this are the people, their feelings, life itself and I have the sensation these things have not been taken into account, that there has been a failure to understand that these things also keep the dynamics of a great club going. To some extent I have even been rebuked for it.
I want there to be respect for what we have achieved together. I would have liked my relationship with the club and the president over the past few months to have been a little different to that of other coaches. I wasn’t asking for privileges, of course not, just a little more recollection. These days the life of a coach in the dugout at a big club is two seasons, little more.
For it to last longer the human relationships are essential, they are more important than money, more important than fame, more important than everything. They need to be nurtured. That’s why it hurt me so much when I read in the press, after a defeat, that I would be sacked if I didn’t win the next game. It hurt me and the whole team because these deliberately leaked messages to the media negatively influenced the squad, they created doubts and misunderstandings.
Luckily I had these amazing lads who were with me to the death. When things turned ugly they saved me with magnificent victories. Because they believed in me and knew I believed in them. Of course I’m not the best coach in the world, but I’m able to give everyone, whether it’s a player, a member of the coaching staff or any employee, the strength and confidence they need in their job.
I know perfectly well what a team needs. Over these 20 years at Madrid I’ve learnt that you, the fans, want to win, of course, but above all you want us to give our all: the coach, the staff, the employees and of course the players. And I can assure you we’ve given 100% of ourselves to this club.
I’d like to take this opportunity to send a message to the journalists. I’ve given hundreds of press conferences and unfortunately we have spoken very little of football, though I know that you love football, this sport that brings us together.
However, and without any desire to criticise or lecture, I would have liked the questions not to have always been about controversy, that we might have talked more often about the game and above all the players, who are and always will be the most important thing in this sport.
Let’s not forget about football, let’s care for it.
Dear Madrid fans, I will always be one of you.
Hala Madrid!
Zinedine Zidane
