Bordeaux are considering bringing Zinedine Zidane in as coach for next season, the club's boss has confirmed.
#INSERT type:image caption:Zinedine Zidane spent four seasons at Bordeaux as a player between 1992 and 1996. END#
Currently assistant coach to Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, Zidane, 41, recently told L'Equipe he was focusing solely on the Primera Division giants' upcoming Champions League final encounter with city rivals Atletico on 24 May.
However, French media have reported Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud has already met twice with the former France captain to discuss him replacing Francis Gillot in the summer, and taking on his maiden senior coaching role.
Though Triaud has attempted to play down media speculation, Nicolas de Tavernost, the head of TV channel M6 which owns the club, told L'Express that Zidane is being seriously considered.
"What is a football company? It's a showbiz company. And if you have the best actor who comes to direct the show, you are better off. Zidane at Bordeaux, for us, would be brilliant. Having said that, there are conditions that need to be fulfilled for it to go ahead. To tell you we haven't thought about it, I would be a liar. To tell you that it will happen, I would be an imposter. At least for today, in any case."
France under-21 coach Willy Sagnol, a former international teammate of Zidane, is also reportedly being considered for the role after Gillot, 54, revealed last weekend he would be stepping down, despite a year being left on his contract, following the final Ligue 1 game of the season on Saturday.
After finishing fifth in his first season, and winning the Coupe de France last term, Gillot is on course to guide his team to a second successive seventh-placed finish, and defended his work in light of the club's waning financial muscle, which has seen key players, such as Jaroslav Plasil, Benoit Tremoulinas and Ludovic Obraniak, depart.
"The moment that you are not the manager, you accept the squad you have available," Gillot, who ends his three-year tenure at Monaco this weekend, said. "If you don't accept that, you leave. I have never complained this or that player has been sold, or that we didn't bring in this or that player. A coach who does three years without being fired, it's not bad. Without lassitude, it's complicated. Three years is a long time."