El clásico digest: Zidane’s magic, Barça’s shirt u-turn and ill feeling for Ronaldo

Zinedine Zidane’s managerial magic

Zinedine Zidane was parachuted into the job as head coach of Real Madrid last January after Rafa Benítez got the sack. Few believed the novice Frenchman would prosper yet he ended the season as one of only seven men who have won the Champions League title as a player and coach.

This season he continues to thrive. He has the record for most points-per-game of any manager in La Liga’s history, despite having weathered injuries to 10 of his 11 starting players this season. Real Madrid is on a 31-match unbeaten run, which includes a resounding 3-0 win over rivals Atlético Madrid at the Calderón. It sits six points clear of the pack in La Liga.

It’s difficult to account for his managerial magic. He didn’t spend big money on his squad over the summer. He eschews talk of tactics in his press conferences, preferring to trade in clichés about the passion of his players, but he exudes calm, and – helped by his stature in the game – he has managed the egos in his squad well. This may be the key to his success.

Barcelona’s €55 million -a-year shirt sponsor deal For over a century, FC Barcelona played without a shirt sponsor. The club’s motto is més que un club – more than a club. It didn’t want to besmirch its sacred colours with branding from the marketplace. In 2006, it broke with its isolationism, but in a novel way. It allowed UNICEF to appear on its shirts, but instead of Barça receiving money, it donated €1.5m a year to the children’s fund.

In December 2010, Barça went full circle, deciding to take some coin from the Qatar Foundation – and later Qatar Airways – as its shirt sponsor. This association drew criticism because of human rights abuses in Qatar.

Next season, the Japanese online retail firm, Rakuten, becomes its new shirt sponsor. Gerard Piqué and his wife Shakira, introduced Barça’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu to Rakuten’s chief executive, Hiroshi Mikitani while the club were touring pre-season last year in San Francisco. The deal is lucrative for Barça, which will receive €55m a year over four years, excluding win bonuses. Reports published by Spanish sports newspaper, AS, that Rakuten sells whale meat and ivory on its website have, however, dismayed the purist wing of Barça’s constituency. Homophobic abuse of Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo is odds-on favourite to win his fourth Ballon d’Or award in January following a glorious year, which includes victories in the Champions League and a romantic win for Portugal at the Euro 2016 finals.

His appetite for goals is insatiable. He has hit the net 360 times in 343 games for Real Madrid. Last month, he banged in a hat-trick against Atlético Madrid in a spikey affair that also featured a fracas between himself and Atlético’s Spanish international midfielder, Koke.

They butted heads with each other like a pair of rutting stags early in the second half. Koke is alleged to have called him a “faggot”, to which Ronaldo reportedly responded: “A faggot with a lot of money, you bastard.” After the game, according to reports in the Spanish media, they clashed again at the doorway to the away team’s dressingroom.

On the Monday after the game, Arcópoli, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group, called on the Spanish Professional Football League, to investigate the alleged abuse, stating “the footballer has been suffering homophobic insults for years”.