Between Zinedine Zidane and Florentino Pérez, the President of Real Madrid, there’s a long-standing love story.
As much as the businessman admires the Frenchman as a coach, he also greatly appreciated him as a player.
The former Juventus player, Zidane, played his last club match at Santiago Bernabeu on May 7, 2006 against Villareal.
At the end of this match, the Madrid club’s locker room saw their president make a wild proposition to the former French international.
Former Brazilian right-back of Real Madrid, Cicinho, recounted an anecdote between Robinho and Florentino Pérez about Zinedine Zidane. “Zidane was very emotional and so were we. He was a legend and was about to retire. Florentino Pérez came in (to the locker room… Ed.) and greeted each player one by one.
And what happened next stayed engraved in our memories. Robinho laughed and said, ‘President, Zizou says he’ll stay if he gets a two-year contract worth 6.5 million euros (the highest salary at Real Madrid at the time), he won’t retire.’
Everyone laughed, but Florentino Pérez said to him (Zidane) very seriously, ‘Do you really want it? If you really want it, I’ll bring you the paper right now.’
Zidane then thought for a moment and then said, ‘No, no, I’m quitting,’” Cicinho recounted to ESPN.
Florentino Pérez loved Zidane so much that he was willing to offer the club’s highest salary for two years to a player who was already 34 years old at the time.
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