Zidane beats Conte to Best FIFA Men´s Coach award after stellar year with Madrid
Zinedine Zidane claimed the Best FIFA Men’s Coach award after leading Real Madrid to LaLiga and Champions League glory in 2016-17
Zidane was honoured at a ceremony staged by world football’s governing body in London on Monday, edging out competition from Chelsea boss Antonio Conte and Juventus’ Massimiliano Allegri.
The France great also got the better of Allegri in Cardiff in June, when Madrid became the first team in the Champions League era to retain the European title with a 4-1 win over Juve.
Zidane missed out on the inaugural version of the FIFA award last time around to Claudio Ranieri, on the back of the latter’s incredible Premier League title triumph with Leicester City in 2015-16.
But pipping Barcelona to LaLiga helped him to edge out Conte and Allegri – both of whom also won their respective domestic leagues in 2016-17.
“This is a fantastic prize and I would like to thank all the players who made this possible,” Zidane told the ceremony at London Palladium. “Thank you so, so much.”
Congratulations, ::Zinedine Zidane!
Winner of #TheBest FIFA Men’s Coach 2017 pic.twitter.com/fHTc3R1Q76
— #TheBest (@FIFAcom) October 23, 2017
Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo is favourite to retain the Best FIFAMen’s Player award he won last year after his heroics for Zidane’s side on the way to glory.
After the 2-0 weekend win over Eibar, Zidane hailed the Portugal captain as “the best of his generation by far”. Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi and PSG’s Neymar are also nominated.
Sarina Wiegman was named Best FIFA Women’s Coach after leading Netherlands to glory at Euro 2017. Also in the running were Denmark’s beaten finalist Nils Nielsen and France boss Gerard Precheur.
“Thank you for this award, it’s a great recognition that I got this but without the team and the great staff that we had in the tournament, we would not have achieved what we did at the European Championships,” Wiegman said.
