Zidane: Patriot & Barca Fan.

By: chris | May 7th, 2009

If you’re sick of the Champions League coverage, and understandably so, this has nothing to do with matters at Stamford Bridge. Thankfully.

Rather it has everything to do with an ex-Galactico – forget that…The Ex-Galactico – saying Madrid should do things “like they do in Barcelona“. Shun the desire to buy high-profile names and instead invest in the progression of homegrown youth. Something you’d expect to hear out of a product of the wildly unsuccessful Galacticos era.

But a blanco who suggests copying the blaugrana blueprint? Either the world’s gone upside down or Zidane needs a post-retirement pee test.

“Real Madrid must stop signing foreign players and be focused on homegrown talents like they do in Barcelona,” Zidane told Canal+, during an interview conducted by fellow Bordeaux legend Christophe Dugarry.

“[Lionel] Messi, Xavi or [Andres] Iniesta are capable of achieving incredible things with the ball. You cannot block them, not even on the Playstation.

“Madrid have to recover their past identity. Down there they do not know what every youth team plays for, whereas they have a common philosophy at Barca.”

So basically start nurturing the youth rather than sending them all down the pipeline to Getafe.

Despite his widow’s peaked-wisdom, there is the most minute of flaws in his plan: guys like Messi, Xavi and Iniesta don’t exactly grow on trees – not even Catalan ones.

Joan Laporta and Barca’s staunchest fanboys will admit this is one hell of a crop, including the likes of Gerard Pique, Bojan Krkic and even that Cesc cat who plays up in London these days. These types of generations come along but once in a lifetime at best – even with Barca boasting one of the best youth setups in the world (along with Ajax and Partizan). You can’t just create these things – the stars must align and the pigment removed from the silkiest smooth of attacking midfielders.

And, of course, part of this is partially Papa Zizou speaking – his son Enzo plays in the Real youth setup. But would a Celtic legend suggest the Hoops play more like Rangers? A Galatasaray old boy suggest they adopt the transfer policy of Fenerbahce? A giallorosso suggest Roma inherit the same inbreeding youth policy at Lazio? Never.

But he does have a point that “Real Madrid must stop signing foreign players“.

Viva Espana, Zizou. Viva Espana.

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Category: Spain La Liga, World Football

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Jose Eduardo

Zidane is a god! Football is philosophy in a nutshell and a way to express yourself. The way a team plays on the field is often a reflection of how one feels about themselves and the level of confidence and understanding that they have towards there teammates. Madrid need to recapture that identity that they once had. They are a club who cant dwell in obscurity anymore. They are too big for that. We already have amazing players that are playing for other clubs who came from our youth setup. The path is there, but we must start walking.
Michael

It is a bit of an over reaction from everybody. To be honest Real just need to bring in a few role players to sure up the back. The team is really coming together towards the end of the season. Linking together and creating great chances up front. I think the loose, open attacking football is fun to watch but if Real would play more defensively they could have won a few more games. Barcelona just killed them on the counter attack.
Madridista

I love the Playstation comment.

The problem is that at Madrid, the bar is set at a certain height - too high. Miss that bar, and everyone gets kicked out, from the president to the manager to the players. Youth development takes time.

It's not the "bringing foreign players in" that is the issue. Foreign players aren't the problem - it's that too often, they are seen as the solution to the problem.

"Madrid have to recover their past identity. Down there they do not know what every youth team plays for, whereas they have a common philosophy at Barca."

This is true. But Barca is unusual in the sense that they have a very particular *playing* philosophy that transcends this team or even every manager - not all clubs have this. You can point to Arsenal, but that's due to the influence of Wenger. You can point to Man Utd's "philosophy", but for Man Utd that philosophy is underpinned by a commitment to winning which is, if you ask me, more essential than a commitment to playing a particular way.

The irony of it is that not so long ago, one of the key features of Madrid was its youth players - think La Quinta del Buitre in the 80s and early 90s, and before that the all-Spanish team that won the 1966 European Cup. To some extent it carried on to the Raul/Guti/Iker generation, and has more or less stopped there. Guess why?

... yep.

I don't think he's wrong to point to Barca - I think right now everyone is seeing the fruits of Barca's faith in their own system pay off, and they quite rightly want to copy the model. But you also have to distill the reasons why the model works for Barca and whether it can be transferred elsewhere. The focus on talent development is something that's easy to pick up on. The philosophy and identity isn't - that's Barca's and Barca's alone. You cannot instill pride in the youth teams at other clubs by asking them to play like Barca, and that's what he's talking about when he says Madrid have to find their identity.
MW

And the truth shall set you free....
Rob

To be fair, Real do have Guti, Iker and Raul, last time I looked.
Ronald

every time this man speaks, i take time out of my busy schedule to listen....because he speaks truth Ladies and Gentleman.

he's been right about most things....including what he said about Steven Gerrard.
Jose147

"You cannot block them, not even on the Playstation."
-Zidane

That alone made my day.