'Special' manager Cristiano Ronaldo loves is dream Man Utd appointment for INEOS

INEOS chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly chasing a blockbuster managerial appointment at Manchester United as part of his bid to overhaul the club. The British billionaire has already outlined his lofty ambitions to displace the likes of Liverpool and Man City at the top of the English football hierarchy, with the Red Devils set to go an 11th consecutive season without a league title.

And according to Foot Mercato, Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford don’t just have a vision for their new project, but a ‘dream’ to appoint a man with three Champions League wins to his name as a manager. They are targeting French legend Zinedine Zidane, who has been out of work ever since his second stint at Real Madrid ended after the 2020/21 season.

The 51-year-old has previously been tenuously linked to United but the prospect is now strengthened by dint of the fact another INEOS chief, Jean-Claude Blanc, is a known admirer of the former midfielder. Indeed, he previously tried to take him to PSG when he was working with the Parisian giants.

‘ZZ’ had already lifted the Champions League as a player with Real when he took charge in 2016, and in a three-year tenure further cemented his legendary status at the club. He won Europe’s top trophy in each of his three seasons at the club, becoming the first coach in history to achieve that feat.

He also captured two FIFA World Club Cups, two European Super Cups and a La Liga title, an repeated the latter achievement after returning to the club for the 2019/20 campaign. And if Ratcliffe wanted an endorsement, he could no worse than cite the assessment of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was pivotal to Zidane in his first spell.

“The confidence that a player needs doesn’t only come from himself but also from the players around him and the coach,” Ronaldo later told DAZN. “You need to feel like you are an important part of the group and Zidane made me feel special.

“He helped me a lot. I already had a lot of respect for him but working with him made me admire him more. That’s because of what he’s like as a person, how he talks, how he led the team and how he treated me. He was always honest with me and that’s why I’ll always have a real affection for him.”

Persuading Zidane to come to Manchester will be anything but straightforward though. Bayern Munich are also being linked with Zidane as the man to rebuild them, with Thomas Tuchel departing this summer.

The 1998 World Cup winner has also previously admitted he holds ambitions to work in Italy. He spent five years as a player in Serie A with Juventus, winning two league titles.