The last time Noël Le Graët spoke about Zinedine Zidane, at the time of Didier Deschamps’ extension with the Blues, it was not really to compliment the 1998 world champion. “I wouldn’t even have picked him up on the phone. To tell him what? “Hello sir, don’t worry, look for another club, I have just reached an agreement with Didier”? (…) He does what he wants, that doesn’t concern me. I never met him and we never considered parting ways with Didier Deschamps. I have nothing to worry about, he can go wherever he wants, in a club, he would have as many as he wants in Europe, a big club. A selection, I hardly believe it as far as I’m concerned. »
Comments which had earned him numerous criticisms, including those from a certain Kylian Mbappé. Almost a year later, the former boss of the FFF returned to this episode to explain himself. “In my opinion, 90% of leaders would have done the same thing. Many journalists were waiting for Zidane. The first journalist who calls me, I’m pretty much friendly. The second, a little less. Then the third one, I send him away. But it wasn’t against Zidane, who I would like to see as coach one day. I was surprised that so-called specialists, who have never managed a club, played the Zidane card, probably because they were tired of writing about Didier and saying that he plays badly. Today, France is second in the FIFA rankings »he declared in an interview with West France.
