Zinedine Zidane showed me how to play football another way, admits Carlo Ancelotti

It was well before his days in Spain that Zinedine Zidane played for Italian giants Juventus and guided them to a couple of Serie A titles. It was for a spell of 2 years that he played under Carlo Ancelotti in Turin, but the duo found trophies very hard to win during that period. Ancelotti would gain valuable inputs from the Frenchman which has seen him reap the benefits for the rest of his managerial career.

"Zidane is the first player who gave me the possibility to change the system and play in a different way. So, when I had Zidane, in the first year at Juventus, I played with a system of 3-4-1-2, having Del Piero and Inzaghi up-front and Zidane a little bit behind. The second year, I played with a back four but keeping two strikers in front and one number 10, like Zidane,” said Carlo Ancelotti, as reported by Sky Sports.

"Zidane changed my idea about football. I was so focused before Juventus on 4-4-2 and after with Zidane, I changed, I wanted to put him in the best position for him, to let him be more comfortable on the pitch,” added the manager.

After parting ways in 2001, both of them reunited at Real Madrid in 2014, where Zidane assisted Ancelotti in the Los Blancos’ Champions League win after 12 years. While Zidane is now the head coach of Real Madrid, Ancelotti plies his trade in England, for Everton.