Rafa Benitez Sacked, Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid's Next Coach
By Ty Duffy
Real Madrid has sacked Rafa Benitez as head coach. He will be replaced by club legend Zinedine Zidane.
Benitez has not done that bad of a job on paper. Real Madrid rolled through their Champions League group by a 19-3 margin. They are third in La Liga with 37 points from 18 matches and have the league’s best goal difference (+29).
But, close doesn’t cut it for Los Blancos. A potential five points behind Barcelona. One point from three matches against the top rest of the top four (Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Villarreal). That was enough to get people behind the scenes antsy.
His underwhelming performance comes as little surprise to EPL fans. Though, Benitez’s reputation in his native country, where he led Valencia to two league titles, was a bit brighter.
It’s not clear where Real Madrid go from here. Bumping Zidane up from the reserve team feels like a move that could prove either brilliant or awful. Broader trends suggest continued instability (Benitez was the 12th coach since Vicente Del Bosque left in 2003) and throwing yet more money and talent at the problem.