Zinedine Zidane spoke in press conference the day before Real Madrid will make their debut in the FIFA Clubs World Cup against América in Yokohama (Japan). Los Blancos will try to bring home the third trophy of the year and close a great 2016, with the unbeaten record set in 35 games, at the moment.
The French manager will have all the squad available for the game except Gareth Bale, who is in Wales, and Sergio Ramos: “Sergio won’t play. He got some pain after the journey and, even though is not serious, he’s tired. We won’t risk anything. We’ll see if can play on Sunday”.
Most of the questions were for the Ballon D’Or award won by Cristiano Ronaldo. Zidane said really good word about the striker: “No other player at Real Madrid will achieve what Cristiano has done. And ‘chapeau’ for Cristiano Ronaldo and his four Ballon D’Or. The truth, it’s very complicated what he’s doing. And I think he can win another Golden Ball”.
The French manager also talked about the mentality of the Portuguese: “His motivation is enormous. He can play a friendly game and win it. And the training match, as well. It’s always like that. This award doesn’t change anything”.
Speaking about the competition, Zidane gives a lot of importance to the trophy: “We know the importance, it’s a competition that we want to play and win. We arrived tired after the trip, but we’re ready for the game”. The coach also spoke about the difficulties of the FIFA World Cup: “The most complicated thing is getting used to the jet lag, recover from a long journey… We needed three days to adapt ourselves, but we’re ready. This is a different competition, but it’s important. To arrive to the final we just need to win, so we’re focused in this game”.
Zizou also spoke about América: “We know the rival, we don’t need months to study them. In these three days we spoke about America and tomorrow we’ll continue with the details. We’re focused in doing a great game. I listened that people said you don’t win with the t-shirt and I agree with this. With the t-shirt you don’t win and we’re going to work a lot to win”.
