New Juventus head coach Igor Tudor explains how his former teammates Alessandro Del Piero and Zinedine Zidane gave him lessons in humility.
The Croatian played for the Bianconeri between 1998 and 2007, thus getting the opportunity to team up with some of the most iconic football stars at the time, and chief among them the aforementioned duo.
So when the Bianconeri decided to sack Thiago Motta following the club’s abysmal run, they considered Tudor the ideal profile to restore some of the club’s lost values.
During his unveiling, the 46-year-old tackled several issues, but one of the most interesting things he said were the anecdotes he told about his time at the club which highlighted the exceptional human values of Zidane and Del Piero.
“I already told this to [Mattia] Perin yesterday. I arrived at Juventus when I was 20. Zidane was in the locker room. I sit there waiting for my turn for therapy,” said Tudor during his press conference on Thursday (via IlBianconero).
“Those who were ahead of me got up, so it’s now my turn. But I see Zizou, so I turn away. He stops me and says: ‘No, it’s your turn, I’ll come back later’.
“Another good thing I learned is how to take my socks off after training. Del Piero comes to me and says: “Look, you have to take them off like this, otherwise, Romeo [a club employee at the time] would have to turn them around. Why do you do that? It doesn’t cost you anything.’ This shows you what type of person he is. These two were examples in humility.”
Tudor also jokingly revealed that Lilian Thuram instructed him to give his son Khephren a slap when necessary.
“Yesterday, I spoke to Lilian, we had a good chat. He said: ‘Look, if he [Khephren] does something wrong, slap him straight away’.
“No, he is a well-mannered kid. I know Khephren from his time at Nice, I met him when I was at Marseille.”
