French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet claims he turned down an approach from Zinedine Zidane to succeed Laurent Blanc as national coach in 2012.
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• World Cup Greatest: Zidane (5)
Champions du monde 98, secrets et pouvoirs [World champions '98, secrets and powers] will be released on Thursday and will include the claim Zidane, 41, asked to meet Le Graet, 72, to discuss the possibility of him taking the French hotseat after Euro 2012. Didier Deschamps was appointed Les Bleus' boss after the side's exit to Spain but it could have been different.
"Zinedine Zidane would have liked to have taken charge of Les Bleus," Le Graet is quoted as saying in the book. "It's clear: he wanted it. I met him at his request."
Having declared his intention to take charge of a team himself one day, Zidane has since taken on an assistant coaching role under Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid and has recently been put forward as a potential successor to Claudio Ranieri at Monaco by French media.
Le Graet is quoted as saying he felt the former France captain could not immediately take charge of the national team, as Michel Platini had done in 1988, without experience of the job at club level.
"It wasn't the time. He needed to take charge of a team first," he wrote.
However, contacted by RMC on Monday, Le Graet did not comment on the revelations.