It’s one of the unwritten rules of junior football: no matter how shit the manager’s son is, he’s guaranteed a game.
Not that we’re saying that Luca Zidane is shit, of course. But some people watching him make his debut for Real Madrid’s senior team on Saturday seemed to be under the impression he was only getting a game because his old man, Zinedine, just so happens to be the boss.
Ahead of their Champions League final against Liverpool next weekend, the European champions gave Keylor Navas the night off in their final game of the La Liga season away at Villarreal.
In stepped 20-year-old Luca Zidane, who pulled off a save to suggest that actually, despite the sniping on Twitter, he probably does actually merit a place on Real’s payroll.
Fielding an otherwise strong starting XI, Real had established a two-goal lead in the first half thanks to Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, shortly after the interval, the home side came close to halving the deficit from a free-kick. Seemingly destined for the top corner, the young Zidane was able to make an acrobatic save, tipping the ball over his cross bar to preserve his clean sheet for a little while longer.
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Unfortunately for him, this wouldn’t last. Villarreal did manage to score through Roger Martinez with twenty minutes remaining. They then added an equaliser late on courtesy of Samu Castillejuo, denying Real a final day victory.
It’s been a difficult league campaign for the recently dethroned Spanish champions. Barcelona have made relatively light work of wrapping up the La Liga title early – coming agonisingly close to finishing their league campaign unbeaten.
City rivals Atletico Madrid, who won the Europa League in Lyon in midweek, are also guaranteed of finishing above them in second before their final league game of the season on Sunday.
Another European Cup in Kiev next Saturday might go some way to making up for this, however.
