Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid President is in the news again. The veteran Spaniard was responsible for the appointment of Zinedine Zidane and has now heaped praise on the Frenchman stating, “Zidane symbolizes everything that is Madrid. He’s part of Madrid’s legend. One of the decisions that I feel most proud of is to have brought him to Madrid, first as a player and now as a coach.”
Florentino was speaking at a Q&A session as reported in the Spanish daily Marca. The question and answers also involved the voting members of the club, and a host of issues were addressed by the 69-year-old.
From plans to revamp the Santiago Bernabeu, to the current crop of galacticos present at the club, Florentino shared his views on all things Real Madrid. The President also used the financial results as a measure of how the club has progressed stating, “The only way is to be economically independent. It's the basis of our club.”
The Zidane Appointment
Perez was instrumental in the appointment of Zidane as the Real Madrid coach last season. The Grand old man of Madrid was at the helm in his now familiar role as President when Madrid broke the bank as early as 2001 to make the Algerian-French Midfielder the world’s most expensive player at the time.
As a manager, Zidane replaced Rafael Benitez, who by the end of his tenure, had lost the Madrid dressing room. Since his appointment, Madrid have won the Champion’s League and are currently top of the La Liga League table with 21 points.
At the time of his appointment, Zidane stated, “I want to thank the club and thank the president for giving me the opportunity to train this club. It’s the best club in the world with the best fan-base in the world. I want to do my very best to ensure that this club at the end of the season will have a trophy.”
Zidane at the time was emotionally moved and that was captured in his later part of his speech as he stated, “It is an important day for me, it’s an emotional day, even more, emotional than the day I signed as a player for the club. I will put all the heart I have into this job for the club. Thank you very much.”
At the time of unveiling, the Real Madrid President had shown his faith in the Frenchman stating, “He is clearly conscious of how tough this job is. Zidane doesn’t know the word impossible.”
Real Madrid travel to Estadio Reino de Leon in mid-week as they take on Cultural Leones in a Copa Del Rey tie.
