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Zinedine Zidane has said he’ll hold talks with Real Madrid “in the next few days” over his future as coach after missing out on the La Liga title, adding, “we’ll see what happens.”
Zidane’s side finished two points behind La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, with a total of 84, following Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Villarreal.
– La Liga on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games in 2021-22 season (U.S. only)
“We have to congratulate Atletico Madrid. They deserve it, they had a great season,” Zidane said in his postmatch news conference. “I’m not the most important thing here. The most important thing is what the players did all year.
“We have to think about what we did all season, congratulate the players, and then with time, with calm, we’ll see. I’ll talk with the club, calmly, but not right now.”
Real Madrid end the 2020-21 season without any silverware, finishing second in La Liga weeks after being knocked out of the Champions League semifinals by Chelsea.
Zidane has consistently refused to commit to staying in charge for next season, despite having a contract that runs until 2022.
“Today after the game, we have to be calm, and then in the next few days we’ll talk with the club, with the appropriate people,” he said. “Soon, we’ll see what happens, not just with me, but with what the club will do for next season.”
The coach — who won La Liga last season after returning in March 2019 for his second spell in charge — came close to losing his job earlier this year when Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey and Spanish Supercopa and appeared to be out of the La Liga title race.
“You know the year we’ve had, you’ve said it all year. We haven’t won anything in the end, OK,” Zidane said. “Here at Real Madrid it’s like that, we know where we are and what we have to achieve. With calm and patience, we’ll talk.
“My state of mind? Right now I’m p***ed off because we didn’t manage to win the league,” he said. “If you ask me, that’s the answer.”