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Ex-Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has claimed that Florentino Perez's wild decision to sell Cristiano Ronaldo instead of Gareth Bale drove former manager Zinedine Zidane out of the club. The former president spoke about the major factor behind the departure of Zinedine Zidane.
Ramon Calderón, who was the president of the Los Blancos from 2006 to 2009, discussed the differences between the French coach and the current president Florentino Perez that arose when the two sat down to discuss planning ahead for the current season.
According to the former president of Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane insisted that Florentino Perez keeps the greatest goalscorer of the club and push Gareth Bale to the exit door instead but it is clear that Florentino had a very different plan.
“Zidane insisted on keeping Cristiano and selling Bale,” Ramon Calderon told Spanish media outlet AS.
“Instead, Perez did the opposite. Zidane wanted to have decision-making power when it came to signing and selling players, but his suggestions were ignored, so he decided to move on. Zidane made the right decision.” he added.
Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane left in the summer of 2018 after etching their name forever in the history books by winning three consecutive UEFA Champions League. They broke their own records while leaving the whole world in awe with their brilliance in the greatest stage of club football repeatedly.
Since then, it went downhill for Los Blancos in 2018/19. It is crystal clear that Real Madrid failed to fill up the void left by these two legends. The presence of both Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo played a crucial role and there is no doubt that the club misses their presence and performances.
After the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, it was hope that it was finally time for Gareth Bale to take up the mantle of Real Madrid's talisman. Evidently, he has failed to step up and deliver at times when the team needed him the most.
Moreover, the Real Madrid board did almost nothing to replace Cristiano Ronaldo with a proven world-class player. The likes of Mariano, Karim Benzema, Asensio and Bale are miles behind the individual quality of Real Madrid's greatest goalscorer.
Although we can never know for sure how true Calderon's words are, it is clear that Real Madrid made a mistake with their transfer policies and Zinedine Zidane may have predicted the disastrous results of the blunder and hence, left the club.
