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Zinedine Zidane knew as soon as the name flashed up on his phone. Late last week, after Real Madrid crashed out of the Champions League to Ajax and saw painful defeats to Barcelona end its hopes in both La Liga and the Copa del Rey, Florentino Pérez, the club’s president, called the man he regards as “the best coach in the world.” He asked him to come back.
“And here I am,” Zidane said.
Just 284 days after he left Madrid — after three Champions League titles in three years — after claiming that both he and the club needed a “change,” Zidane walked back into the media suite at the Santiago Bernabéu flanked by his wife, Veronique, Pérez, and a phalanx of Real legends.