Spanish giants Real Madrid have parted ways with coach Rafael Benitez barely seven months into the job after a string of unimpressive performances where he reportedly lost control of his dressing room as well as fans turning against him.

Former Madrid great and French football legend Zinedine Zidane has been named as his replacement. His appointment will add to the recent trend of former players taking over the reins of clubs after their retirement.

The trend has yielded mixed results with Spanish Pep Guardiola (Barcelona), Argentine Diego Simeone (Atletico) and Welsh Mark Hughes (Stoke) all proving a success while Argentine legend Diego Maradona, Dutch Star Clarence Seedorf and Italian Fillipo Inzaghi failed to find their feet in management.

For former Ghana player and coach Ibrahim Sunday, the requirements for playing and coaching are vastly different and need different approaches

“If you believe yourself that you are a good player and you think you can coach and be successful then you are deceiving yourself.,”he told Joy Sports.

“Coaching is more of practical than theory and so you have to start from somewhere go through the courses then start coaching from a weaker or younger club.”

“Then you follow the senior coaches and learn from before taking over a big team.”

Zidane will hope to follow the footsteps of Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique who were instant successes after moving from the B-team to the senior team.

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