Could Zinedine Zidane become Real Madrid manager, sooner rather than later?

Last week, Los Blancos president, Florentino Perez, indicated that ‘Zizou’ would begin to play a more pivotal role in the club’s affairs, now that Jose Mourinho has gone.

The French legend has been employed as a sporting director at the Bernabeu since 2011, but while Mourinho was manager he hardly set foot at the club, preferring to spend his time working on his coaching badges in France.

Madrid have run into obstacles in their attempt to lure Carlo Ancelotti to Spain from Paris Saint Germain, and are yet to identify another candidate to replace Mourinho.

And so Perez says that if push came to shove, Real could give Zidane more responsibility than just recruiting new players for the club.

While he accepts that it would not be ideal for Zidane to be thrown into the deep end as Real’s first team coach, Perez says that the World Cup winner has all the right attributes for the job.

"[Zidane] could be the coach," Perez told Telecinco.

"He has the qualifications and he is a madridista.

“We have not yet thought about it because we have been very scrupulous with the steps. But he fulfils all the requirements, for sure."

Perez accepts that the vacancy may have come too soon for Zidane, but that Real will at least consider employing him as manager.

"It is a subject we need to evaluate," he said. "In the first stage it is a little… I do not want to say risky, but he needs to be battle-hardened."

If Los Blancos want someone battle-hardened, they need look no further than the man who ended his playing career in the World Cup final with a red card, after head butting an opponent!

Yet as ‘box office’ of an appointment as Zidane would be, Real are still thought to be chipping away at PSG’s resolve to release Ancelotti. But Perez will not say if a decision on their new manager should be expected imminently.

"Not this week," he said. "We must look at things and examine them."