Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has taken an unusual approach to motivate his players ahead of Saturday’s UEFA Champions League final with Juventus, by showing them clips from 300 dubbed over with his voice.
According to Marca’s Jose Felix Diaz, Zidane has recorded his voice over a clip from the film in which character Dilios delivers an inspiring speech to the Spartan army.
He reminds his squad that “everyone is against us … we must fight for the team and for our families … the media wants to see us suffer and lose … the desire to see us fall makes us stronger.”
Here is the clip in question:
MARCA 🗞 | Pour motiver ses joueurs, ZIDANE a utilisé des extraits de “300”, notamment le discours de Dilios, dont il a adapté les propos. 🎞🎬 pic.twitter.com/qas9rgSYr0
— SocialRMadrid FR (@SocialRMadridFr) June 2, 2017
The film is a fitting choice for his attempt to create a siege mentality among his players, as it centres on the Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas and his army of 300 Spartans fought to their deaths to hold off an invading Persian force for seven days, despite being vastly outnumbered.
Bleacher Report Football imagined Zidane in the role of Leonidas:
Zinedine Zidane has voiced over a scene from ‘300’ to inspire his players ahead of the Champions League final.https://t.co/dRYE0XcZac pic.twitter.com/lo9Ci6zczg
— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 2, 2017
According to Diaz, the unusual method of stoking his players for the clash is perhaps a departure from Zidane’s usual man-management style, as he “isn’t a coach who relies overly on big talk or shouting in a bid to inspire, relying on his sincerity and small gestures to feed his side’s ambition.”
Further, he and his staff are said to have prepped several other clips from a number of different films ahead of the showpiece in Cardiff, Wales.
Zidane guided his team to Champions League success last year, and this year they could do the double having won La Liga.
Given their recent history in the competition, having won it twice in the last three years, Los Blancos will be considered the favourites against Juventus, who lost to Barcelona in the 2015 final.
A departure from his usual style could be perceived as something of a gamble, but based on the job he’s done so far, Zidane has proved he has excellent judgement when it comes to his players and how to get the best out of them.
Culled from Bleacher Report
