As the much delayed and some what truncated European soccer season finally approached its end, various soccer websites asked this question. It came on the heels of Real Madrid winning La Liga; to be fair, FC Barcelona threw the title away after a series of horrid performances after the restart, but I digress. The league title went to the Spanish capital after residing in the Catalan capital for a good many years, adding to their recent historic success in the Champions League with the bald French legend at the helm, and prompting the question:
Is Zinadine Zidan currently the best manager in European club soccer?
In a word… no.
This is not just the cule in me talking, either. There are two other managers who may have fewer trophies overall, but have proven to be of stronger managerial stock; their ability to adapt their style to different leagues and remaining at a high level of excellence puts them, in my opinion, above the Frenchman as far as the ‘best manager’ question goes.
I am of course talking about Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, two globally admired bosses with a long history of achievement. Guardiola of course also has a special place in mine and all Barca fans’ hearts, owing to his unprecedented trophy laden record with the blaugrana, both as a player and manager. He then replicated that success with German giants FC Bayern Munich before moving on to the English Premiere League with Manchester City, becoming the architect of the Cityzens’ historic current form.
Success has also followed Klopp from Brussia Dortmond, where his style of fluid football and affable personality brought him much love from players and fans alike, as well as bringing the (other) German giants series of successes and making fans of us all, all around the world. It has taken him a while, but after moving to Liverpool from Dortmund, the bespectacled German has brought Liverpool back to the top of European soccer; a place it hadn’t occupied since its glory days in the ‘80s. The Reds won the UCL trophy last year, and won the Premiere League this season by a 22 point gap over Pep’s Man City, after 30 years.
These two men have consistently proven brilliant and highly capable from one club to the next, country to country, while Zidan has only managed Real Madrid, starting with the club’s youth team in La Liga Segundo, before making the transition to the senior squad. He is also hampered by the club’s president, whose tactics and demands have kept Real Madrid from assembling true world beaters like they had during the club’s “The Galacticos” era; their trophies constantly marred by controversial calls and questionable tactics by players (looking right at you, Sergio Ramos!), so on and so forth.
This is not to say Zidan won’t someday soon conquer Europe and maybe even the world as the top manager in soccer. He is certainly capable of accomplishing that very feat. However, right now, as we speak…
He’s not it.