The coach who refused to be the substitute for Zidane in 2018, before Lopetegui was
As he says, Real Madrid offered him the position of coach that summer
Julian Nagelsmann, coach of the German RB Leipzig, revealed that in 2018 he was contacted by Real Madrid to train the white club. In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, the German coach admitted that José Ángel Sánchez, general director of Real Madrid, tried him in the summer of 2018, after Zinedine Zidane left the club.
«It is normal that if Real Madrid calls you, you weigh it. I was surprised at first, I thought about it and I didn't feel comfortable going there. If you go to Real Madrid, you don't have time to improve as a coach, ”said Nagelsmann, who was then a Hoffenheim militant.
“You have no chance to be a better coach, because you already have to be the best. I was not the best, but I can admit that I want to be one of the best in the future. If you go to Real Madrid or Barcelona you don't have time to grow, ”he added.
As the German explained, in these clubs "they only want victories in each game, titles, Champions." "If you don't win, you can't say I'm still young, I'm growing, it's not so easy in football to design a race, because it's so unpredictable."
“The most important thing is to take the right steps, not the biggest steps. Real Madrid is probably one of the biggest steps you can take, so I thought ‘I'm 31 years old, I'm going to Real Madrid, but then what?’», He pointed out.
Nagelsmann, now 32 years old and second in the Bundesliga with Leipzig, added that another of the barriers to going to Real Madrid was the language. «I am very expressive with my players and I cannot speak Spanish yet. I can only say hello how are you? It was the biggest step, but not the right one, ”he reiterated.
