I'll begin this post with a question: who has had the greatest football career of all time?
At first, most people would suggest names such as Diego Maradona, Pelé, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Nazario, and several others. However, the question was not "who is the greatest player of all time", but "who has had the greatest football career". After the events of the most recent matchday, this question may have been settled once and for all.
In a clash during the penultimate round of La Liga matches, Real Madrid beat Villarreal 2-1 to clinch the league title. Karim Benzema scored both goals in the victory which not only sealed the title for Los Merengues but also added another chapter to the already incredible football career of head coach Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane was arguably among the top 10 players of all time. He spearheaded France to a World Cup title in 1998 and a European Championship title in 2000. Zidane was also part of the Galácticos-era Real Madrid which won the Champions League in 2002. In the final against Bayer Leverkusen, Zidane scored a spectacular volley to earn Real their third Champions League title in five seasons. He was also named World Player of the Year by FIFA in 1998, 2000, and 2003 and was among the top five players in the world for around a decade after consistently excelling for and being in contention for titles with Juventus, Real, and France.
Incredibly, Zidane might very well be on his way to becoming an even better coach than he was a player. After first having become the coach of Real's reserve team, Real Madrid Castilla, in 2014, Zidane took over the reins at the main club in 2016 after replacing Rafael Benítez. The Frenchman's impact at the Santiago Bernabéu was immediate as he went on to etch his name into football history by leading Real Madrid to three consecutive Champions League titles, thus placing that Real team as perhaps the greatest club team of all time. After leaving the club in May 2018 after Real's third straight Champions League triumph, Zidane returned to the helm in March 2019 and has already helped them wrest the La Liga title from Barcelona despite having a vastly inferior squad talent-wise.
Zidane has clearly already had quite the career in football. It might already be the greatest ever when football achievements as a non-player are also taken into consideration. It is true that purely in terms of achievements, Franz Beckenbauer and Michel Platini are both in the discussion. Both were among the greatest players of all time. However, both their legacies have also been tainted by scandals. Ordinarily, this would not impact their standing in this discussion; however, in this case the scandals do have an impact because they were football-related scandals.
Frank Rijkaard might be another name to be considered. As a player, the legendary Dutch midfielder won three European Cups or Champions League and the European Championship in 1988 with the Netherlands. He was also a Ballon d'Or contender in the late 1980s. Rijkaard would subsequently go on to coach Barcelona to a Champions League title in 2006.
However, with all due respect to Rijkaard, as great a player as he was, he never even approached the level attained by Zidane at his peak. Rijkaard also found almost no coaching success outside his stint at Barça and has thus not coached since the end of his ill-fated stint coaching Saudi Arabia's national team in 2013.
Furthermore, Zidane has only been coaching for around five years. Over the next 10 to 20 years, there is no telling what he could achieve based on what he has already done. A fourth Champions League title would almost certainly assure his position as the person with the greatest football career ever. If he chooses to move into a front-office role at some point down the line and is successful in that role as well, it would only burnish his already standout legacy. Based on his career thus far, there is no reason to believe that he would not.
Not every player who becomes a coach or enters a front-office position is able to handle the transition and pressure as well as Zidane has. Ultimately, that may be the main reason why Zidane has had what I believe to be the greatest football career of all time.
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