Zinedine Zidane has already expressed his desire to become the coach of the French national team. That’s not happening for now, with Didier Deschamps signing a new four-year contract with the French Football Federation (FFF). The FFF president also made negative comments about Zidane after signing a contract with Deschamps. Noel La Graet. The current and former players of France expressed anger at Graet’s comments about the legendary footballer. French sports minister Emilie Odia-Castera asked Graet to apologize to Zidane.
After being bombarded from all sides, Graet finally apologized to Zidane. The 81-year-old football official said today, ‘I apologize for the comments. The comments that did not reflect my point of view, did not consider the players and coaches.
Deschamps was the coach of the French national team in the last three World Cups. There were rumors in the French football arena that Zidane could be coached by the FFF. Zidane, who won the 1998 World Cup for France, last coached at Real Madrid. After voluntarily leaving Madrid in May 2021, he did not join anywhere else.
Last June, he himself said that one day he wants to become the coach of France. His former teammate Thierry Henry said that Zidane is not taking responsibility elsewhere as the coach of the French national team. After France’s loss to Argentina in the Qatar World Cup final, Zidane’s appointment as coach was thought by many to be imminent.
However, the FFF eventually signed a contract with current coach Deschamps for another four years. Then, in an interview given to RMC Sports, FFF chief Graet made several comments about not making Zidane a coach. One of which was like, ‘What if Zidane had called me? Certainly nothing would have happened. I didn’t pick up his phone.’
What is the future of Zidane now, will he accept the offer of the coach of Brazil?
When such a topic arose, Graet said, “Zidane in Brazil?” I can’t do anything. Let him do what he wants. It is not my concern. I have never discussed this with him. We never thought of breaking up with Deschamps.
Retweeting this comment of the head of the FFF, Castera, the sports minister of the French government, wrote, “Another extreme comment. It’s a shame not to show respect to a sports and football legend, which has shocked us all. The president of France’s biggest sports federation should not talk like this. Please apologize to Zinedine Zidane for the outrageous statement.’
Kylian Mbappe, the biggest star of France football at the time, expressed dissatisfaction with the statement of the head of the federation. The 24-year-old PSG star wrote on Twitter, “Zidane is France, we can’t disrespect the legend like this.”
Yuri Zorkayev, the former player who won the World Cup with Zidane, reminded what Zidane is in France football, “I can’t welcome the words.” These are nonsense. (Remember) we are talking about a world champion. World champion.
Another ex-footballer, Franck Ribery, took a dig at Graeme in a tweet saying, ‘You amaze me. Another thing is that it has become necessary to consult with Jiju quickly.
Criticizing the media who interviewed him in the apology speech, Graet said, ‘I should not have given an interview to RMC. They wanted to create a debate between the two best players in French football.
