The big day has arrived for Zinédine Zidane. At 6 p.m., the new coach of the France team will unveil his first list, officially launching a new era among the Blues after the departure of Didier Deschamps. An obviously eagerly awaited announcement, which is the culmination of several weeks of work for the staff of the former Real Madrid coach. Zidane did not upset habits in terms of pre-selection, since a first list of 55 players was established, with five names selected for each position. But the ZZ staff also increased the number of observations of less publicized profiles.
To carry out this work, the roles were distributed within the staff according to the newspaper The Team. Fabien Barthez was responsible for monitoring the goalkeepers, seen in particular in Toulouse, while the outfield players benefited from a double reading or even a triple reading. David Bettoni, Zidane’s faithful assistant, came to bring his coaching experience while Stéphane Plancque focused more on observation, his specialty. A particularly complementary duo, since the two men know each other perfectly after having worked together for six years at Real Madrid. Plancque did not only look at the French: his work also allows him to keep an eye on the Blues’ future opponents, with Turkey, Belgium and Italy on the Nations League program.
A triple observation
The staff then established regular monitoring of the targeted players. Every two weeks, Zidane and his colleagues met to take stock of the various observations and decide on the profiles requiring particular attention. According to the French daily, Adrien Truffert was supervised twice at the stadium with Bournemouth, while Lucas Da Cunha, author of a remarkable start to the season with Como, also attracted attention. Farid Tabet, new video analyst, also regularly observed the players. Bettoni, Zidane’s number one assistant, notably followed Germany and Italy, Plancque France and several other competitions, while Tabet mainly observed England and Spain.
This organization must also prevent a player from being judged on a single impression. Every three months, the observation areas must rotate so that potential internationals are monitored by different members of staff during the season. A way to get several readings before making a final decision. Zidane, for his part, has not yet made many trips, and has only been seen in Bollaert for the Champions Trophy between Lens and PSG. According to the French sports daily, his status as an international icon sometimes makes it difficult to organize his travels. But now it remains to discover the fruit of this work with this first list of the Zidane era, which will allow us to see which new faces have managed to find a place in the plans of the 1998 world champion.
