Three Champions League trophies. Two La Liga titles. A record 73 consecutive games in which his side scored. And still, nobody can quite tell you what Zinedine Zidane actually believes football should look like.

On Friday, that paradox arrives on the international stage when he leads France against Turkey in the Nations League — an enigmatic coach finally in charge of the most talent-rich squad in world football. Zidane won his three successive Champions Leagues at Real Madrid between 2016 and 2018, a feat no other manager has matched. He then walked away just five days after the third triumph, offering only the vaguest explanation about the club needing fresh energy. His motivations, as ever, remained opaque.

He returned eight months later, steadied a club in chaos after the troubled reigns of Julen Lopetegui and Santi Solari, and added another La Liga title before departing again in 2021. Two league titles across four full seasons sounds respectable until you remember that in Madrid, anything less than total dominance is quietly considered a disappointment. France, meanwhile, are a puzzle of their own making. Under Didier Deschamps they reached three major finals and still left supporters with a nagging sense that something was being held back.