Zinedine Zidane: Laurent Blanc the right man for France job
French football legend Zinedine Zidane has said Laurent Blanc, who was appointed coach of the French team this summer, is the right man to lead the national team.
Blanc, who managed FC Bordeaux between 2007 and 2010, succeeded Raymond Domenech at the France post this summer after the former manager's tumultuous World Cup.
After the tournament, several players were handed disciplinary suspensions by the French Football Federation.
After opening the country's Euro 2010 qualifying campaign with a 1–0 home defeat to Belarus, Blanc has collected three consecutive victories in competitive fixtures.
While the loss to Belarus prompted widespread criticism, Zidane has said he had always thought his former France team-mate to be the right man for the job.
"I was always convinced Laurent Blanc was the right man to take charge of our national team. After the disastrous events in South Africa, we had to wipe the slate completely clean and I can think of no
one better to make a success of the rebuilding process," the former midfielder told ESPN Soccernet.
Zidane, who partnered Blanc in the national team that won the 1998 World Cup and the European Championships two year later, said Blanc's characteristics as a player showed his potential to manage a team
early on.
"He's a proper coach, insists on playing attacking football and is a natural leader. He has this authority that people respect and players respond in the right way to him. In my old French side, 'Lolo'
[Blanc] and Didier Deschamps effectively were the guys who set the tone, who made sure everyone was on the same page and stayed focused."
France travel to face England in an international friendly at London's Wembley Stadium on Wednesday 17 November.
AJ Auxerre's Benoit Pedretti and Julien Feret of AS Nancy have been handed their first international call-ups by Blanc for the game.
Zidane is sitll hugely influential in French football circles, and had previously been highly critical of former coach Domenech as well as the French team during the 2010 World Cup.
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