Zinedine Zidane made himself the hottest property in football by stepping down as Real Madrid manager on Thursday.
Having won the Champions League for the third year running, becoming the first ever manager to achieve that feat, Zidane stunned the football world (and Real president Florentino Perez) by calling time on his two-and-a-half year spell at the Bernabeu.
Having marked himself out as a serial winner despite a relatively short senior career, the former playmaker will not find himself short of offers if and when he decides to step back into management.
Here are five places that the Frenchman could make his next port of call.
France
Stepping into international football seems like the next logical step for the man that has just effectively completed club football. Having just walked away from the biggest club in the world, moving to another club right away will almost certainly feel like a step down for him.
France manager Didier Deschamps has suggested that Zidane is destined to pick up the reins of the national team one day. Should Les Bleus fail to perform at the World Cup in Russia this summer, that day could come sooner rather than later.
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Qatar
Zidane had barely even cleared out his desk at Real Madrid before he was being touted as the next manager of Qatar. On one level, it might make sense for him to take what will be a high-paid, low-pressure job. Qualification for the next World Cup is assured and competitive matches will be few and far between.
That said, the only real incentive to take that job would be financial, and Zidane has never really seemed the type to be motivated by money. To that end, the tentative reports seem very wide of the mark.
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Juventus
Zidane has never hidden his love for Juve, having spent five mostly successful years in Turin. He came to worldwide prominence at Juve, and facing them in the Champions League final in 2017 was an emotional time for him.
Should Max Allegri leave the Allianz Stadium in the near future (possibly even to Real), they will almost certainly look to talk to their former player about a managerial return to the club. It’s also probably one of the few jobs that Zidane would genuinely be excited by.
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Chelsea
With Chelsea seemingly ruling the previous favourite Maurizio Sarri out of the running to succeed Antonio Conte (who, lest we forget, is still the manager there), the Blues are back to square one in terms of a new boss for next season.
Zidane’s resignation will definitely have altered their plans somewhat, and they will probably approach him at some point. With no Champions League football and a probable overhaul of the squad required, however, would the project be enticing enough for Zidane?
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Paris Saint-Germain
How PSG will have wished that Zidane’s announcement had come sooner. They will swear blind that they are happy with the appointment of Thomas Tuchel to replace Unai Emery, part of them will surely be regretting the fact that a superstar French manager has suddenly come on the market.
Either consciously or unconsciously, the pressure is now on Tuchel to succeed at PSG. The longer Zidane remains unemployed (and therefore a reminder for PSG of what they could have had), the Sword of Damocles will hang over the German’s head.
Read More About: antonio conte, Champions League, Chelsea, florentino perez, France, Juventus, La Liga, Paris Saint Germain, Qatar, Real Madrid, Thomas Tuchel, zonedine zidane
