Zidane, Alonso, two others in line to succeed Ancelotti

Real Madrid will go back to the future when they pick the man to take over from Carlo Ancelotti, who has agreed to become Brazil's head coach at the end of next season.

There are four candidates in the frame and are all former Madrid players; one has already coached the club twice and led them to three Champions League successes.

It may be only the pull of the French national job that keeps Zinedine Zidane out of the Bernabeu for a third term. And if he is not the man to take over in 2024, then Xabi Alonso, Raul Gonzalez, and Alvaro Arbeloa are the other heirs to Carlo’s throne.

Zidane wants to get back into the game and is still in contact with Madrid president Florentino Perez. He likes the idea of taking over the French national team but for now, that is not an option for him.

In general terms, club football interests him less. He has no desire to coach in England and his allegiance to Marseille has always stood between him and the Paris Saint-Germain job. Italy, especially Juventus, is a possibility, but Madrid represents a better chance of continuing his incredible trophies record.

His fingerprints are also very much on the current Real Madrid squad. He has already coached Vinicius and Rodrygo and urged the club to sign Aurelien Tchouameni. Jude Bellingham has referenced him as his hero and taken his number five shirt.

When Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2022 Bellingham was in a private box in Paris with Zidane – close enough for him to ask a question of his hero. ‘I would have talked his ear off if he had let me’ he admitted at his Madrid presentation.

Eduardo Camavinga has also mentioned the huge influence Zidane had on him as a youngster. The player told Mail Sport in an interview last year: ‘Zidane was my idol – he was all our idols! I used to do the famous ‘roulette’ I’d seen on a Zidane skills YouTube video.’

Zidane also ticks another very important box. Kylian Mbappe might be more inclined to arrive if his hero is the coach. Madrid are looking for a manager to work with their young squad rather than another Ancelotti who can manage the egos of established stars but the potential outlier in the 2024-25 season squad is Mbappe who will need a certain degree of ‘Ancelotti-style’ governance. Zidane could provide that.

His relationship with Perez remains solid and a third act to his managerial role at the club cannot be ruled out unless the France job is offered to him and Madrid can’t compete with the chance for Zidane to take the French into the 2026 World Cup.

Alonso is next in line. He was alongside Zidane watching from the sidelines when the club won their tenth European Cup in 2014 in Lisbon. Zidane was Ancelotti’s assistant at the time and Alonso was still a player but suspended for the final. Everything that has happened to him since suggests he can coach Real Madrid one day.

Bayer Leverkusen went on an unbeaten run of 13 games when Alonso took charge of the side in deep relegation trouble last season. The BayArena became a regular 30,000 sell-out and he took to within 90 minutes of the Europa League final before qualifying for Europe via the league.

 

His pragmatic style suits Madrid and his previous work with young players at Real Sociedad’s B-team suggest he will fit a young squad. He is nothing if not shrewd though, as he showed towards the end of last season when he silenced all the talk of him moving on by agreeing to stay at Leverkusen this coming season. If he sees Real Madrid from Bayer Leverkusen as too big a jump then Madrid may have to look in-house, at the last two candidates, Raul and Arbeloa.