Zinedine Zidane picked the trio of Real Madrid players who impressed him the most while manager of Los Blancos – but he did not name Cristiano Ronaldo when making his decision.
Zidane played for Real for five seasons in the early 2000s, scoring 49 goals in 230 appearances for the Santiago Bernabeu side.
In that time, he won the La Liga title twice and the Champions League in 2002, netting a famous volley in the final against Bayer Leverkusen in a 2-1 victory.
Zidane retired from playing in 2006 and eventually embarked upon a coaching career, initially with Real Madrid B between 2014 and 2016.
Zidane became the new head coach of Real at the start of 2016 when Rafael Benitez was sacked.
In two spells in charge between 2016 and 2018, and then from 2019 to 2021, Zidane won two La Liga titles and a trio of Champions League crowns.
In that time, Zidane worked with a plethora of attacking talent, most notably Ronaldo who spearheaded much of Real’s success in the decade he played at the Santiago Bernabeu side.
The Portuguese superstar scored 450 goals in 438 games to become the club’s all-time top scorer, and won four Ballon d’Or crowns in his time there.
However, when it came to naming the three players who most impressed him during his spells in charge of Real, Zidane neglected to mention Ronaldo and instead named a trio of other stars.
Speaking to Canal+, he said: “When you see [Toni] Kroos, [Luka] Modric and [Karim] Benzema playing for you for an hour without losing a single ball, that is football.”
Kroos retired this summer, having joined Real from Bayern Munich in 2014 with 28 goals scored in 465 games in all competitions.
Benzema joined Real in the same summer as Ronaldo back in 2009 from Lyon, and left in the summer of 2023 to join Al-Ittihad following 354 goals in 648 matches.
Midfield maestro Modric remains a Real Madrid player at the age of 39, having joined from Tottenham Hotspur in 2012.
The Croatian has netted 39 goals in 547 games and counting for Los Blancos.