10 greatest players to have played under Carlo Ancelotti

#3 Zinedine Zidane (Juventus)

Current Real Madrid manager Zidane first burst onto the European scene as a precociously talented playmaker at Juventus. Ancelotti managed Juventus from 1999-2001 and Zidane was undoubtedly the standout player of that Juventus side.

Although Ancelotti did not have his usual success at Juve, Zidane still mesmerised with his stunning performances in the 'number 10' role, even winning the Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year in 2001. In fact, Carlo Ancelotti who preferred playing in a rigid 4-4-2 system even changed his tactics to allow Zidane to play in the attacking midfielder position he so craved to play.

Although Zidane and Ancelotti could only win an Intertoto Cup at Juventus, the Frenchman's skill, class and obvious talent provided plenty of joy to Serie A and Juventus fans. Zidane's then Juve team-mate Edgar Davids best summarised Zidane's style of play:

"He is a special player. He creates space where there is none. No matter where he gets the ball or how it comes to him, he can get out of trouble. His imagination and his technique are amazing"

About the author

A Bengaluru lad through and through, Ashwin Hanagudu is a huge fan of Liverpool and unsurprisingly pledges his sworn allegiance to RCB in the IPL. With over 8+ years of experience in this field, Ashwin manages multiple verticals at Sportskeeda and as of July 2024 is the most-read author in the football section.

Apart from his duties at Sportskeeda, Ashwin Hanagudu is also an active table tennis player and has played multiple state ranking and national tournaments representing Karnataka.

A huge sports fan, some of the athletes and sportspersons he admires in no particular order are Virat Kohli, Steven Gerrard, Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu

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Edited by Ashwin Hanagudu