The Selfless Leadership of a Football Icon

Zinédine Zidane, commonly known as “Zizou,” resigned from his post as Real Madrid’s football manager at the end of May. He had just led his squad to their third straight UEFA Champions League crown, arguably club football’s most prestigious championship, and was at the peak of his profession.

The question is, why? Why would a club legend as a player and now manager retire from the world’s most successful team early in his managerial career while standing atop the mountain? A closer look at “Zizou’s” history points to a possible answer.

The Player

A Frenchman, Zidane is widely considered one of the greatest players of all time. He was an elite and elegant playmaker whose vision, passion, and ball control made him the most devastating attacking midfielder of his time. His personal accolades include being named FIFA’s World Player of the Year in 1998, 2000, and 2003. He also won the Ballon d’Or in 1998, which goes to the best player in the world. He was Ligue 1 Player of the year in France in 1996 with Bordeaux, Serie A Footballer of the Year in 2001, and La Liga Best Foreign Player in 2002. He is one of only eight players to have won the World Cup, the Champions League, and the Ballon d’Or.

He was capped by France 108 times and led them to the 1998 World Cup winner’s platform while netting twice in the final. He was a two-time Serie A winner in Italy early in his career while at Juventus, which led to him joining Spain’s Real Madrid as a player in 2001 for a record fee at the time. As a Real Madrid ‘Galactico,’ Spain’s La Liga title and the 2002 Champions League crown soon followed with his left-footed volley in the Final securing the latter. One of the few black marks of his career is his head-butt to the chest of Italy’s Marco Materazzi in extra time in the 2006 World Cup Final. He was ejected and missed the penalty shootout where Italy ended up victorious. It was his last action as a professional footballer as he announced his retirement upon his return to France. It later was learned that Materazzi insulted his sister, which led to Zidane’s outburst.

The Manager

For the next stage of his career, he joined Real Madrid as an assistant coach where he helped the squad win the Champions League and Spain’s Copa Del Rey titles. He assumed the top job in January 2016 and the team won, in addition to the treble of Champions League titles, a Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup twice.

Everywhere Zidane goes, he wins. It appears that he stepped down at Real Madrid so that they could continue their winning ways. As one accustomed to earning glory for club and country, he understands not only how to win but how to remain successful. He realized that he was slowly losing the locker room. As a player, he spent years in various locker rooms and witnessed multiple managers come and go. I believe that he had well-thought out ideas about how to handle this almost imperceptible disconnection to his message and realized before anyone else what must happen. In his press conference he said, “This club needs a change to keep winning. With me it would be complicated to keep winning.” Zidane’s announcement caught everyone by surprise, but he said, “You have to know when to quit. After three years, [the club] needs a change in speech, a new work methodology. We went through good moments but also complicated ones, and I don’t forget them. I want to leave when everything is going well. This is a good moment to end it well. It could be a ‘see you soon,’ because Madrid has given me everything, and I'll be linked to this club my entire life,” Zidane said. “The decision may not make a lot of sense to many, but it does to me. It was time to make a change.”

As he thought about his players, a veritable who’s-who of talent in their own right, his voice was not having the effectiveness that it once did. Even though he had job security and a lucrative contract in the offing during his next negotiations, he stepped away for the club, players, and fans that he worked so hard to win for every time he took the pitch. His expectation that Real Madrid should always be victorious led him to realize that he wasn’t getting enough out of his team for a run at the next Champions League and La Liga titles. By stepping aside, he allowed for a new motivational force to come in to push the squad to new heights.

The Future

Expectations are that Zidane will land a prominent leadership role soon. Rumors were already surfacing that he may be in line to take over for Didier Deschamps as the French National Team’s manager but with Les Bleus World Cup success in Russia, Deschamps’s position is solid. Should Zidane assume an international manager position, he could become the only person to win the World Cup and Champions League as both a player and manager. It sounds like a challenge that is squarely in Zidane’s wheelhouse.

While most leaders don’t all have the financial means to retire in their mid-40s on a whim, I think this is an example of selfless leadership in today’s ‘it’s all about me’ culture. He had it all with much more to come, but he stepped away from the limelight for the betterment of others who he cared about.

Zidane’s story is compelling because while a leader doesn’t have to step down after a period of success, thinking long and hard about how you motivate your team is paramount. Are you continuing to get the very best out of them? Has apathy developed in small areas of your organization or business unit that will eventually rot the healthy things that are happening? How do you monitor and evaluate this?

What are the key things leaders can do to prevent a slow descent into mediocrity? If that has already happened, how do you fix it quickly to get back to your winning ways?