Zinedine Zidane set to join Cristiano Roanldo at Juventus – Reports

In a sensational turn of events, a latest report claims that Zinedine Zidane will join Juventus’ technical staff this summer to work as the director of football.

He will work alongside Fabio Paratici at the Turin-based club, after having resigned as the manager of Real Madrid a month ago.

The news of Zidane returning to Juventus as the director, after having represented the club as a player in the earlier stages of his career is quite an interesting development. This is because, Cristiano Ronaldo, who played in Zidane’s tutelage at Madrid in the past two-and-a-half years, was unveiled as a Juventus player earlier this week.

The Real Madrid legend was appointed as the manager of the club in January 2016, following the sacking of Rafa Benitez. Zidane endured a very successful spell at the helm, leading the Los Blancos to three consecutive Champions League titles.

He even won the La Liga in the 2016/17 season, eventually completing a double over archrivals FC Barcelona. Zidane’s astute man-management was beneficial at Madrid, as all the players seemed to respect and honor his decisions.

In a shocking decision, he quit from his position in May – only a few days after leading the club to the Champions League trophy.

Since then, there have been obvious rumours and doubts regarding Zidane’s future. The move to Juventus would represent a move back to familiar surrounding for the man, as the ex-Real Madrid boss spent five years of his playing career representing the Italian side between 1996 and 2001.

He won two Serie A titles with the Old Lady, and developing into one of the finest attacking midfielders the world has ever seen. It took Real Madrid a then world-record fee of € 77.5 million to prise him away.

Juventus are looking at mounting a serious challenge to take the Champions League home next season. Ronaldo’s arrival, coupled with Zidane’s imminent appointment means that that club should be one of the favourites if not ‘the’ favourites for the Champions League.

Whether there is some connection between Ronaldo and Zidane’s subsequent moves to Juventus, is something that remains to be seen as of now.