Raphael Varane credits Jose Mourinho and Zinedine Zidane for helping him settle at Madrid

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane, in an interview with Onze Mondial, talked about his state of mind during his initial days with the Los Blancos. Varane joined Real Madrid in 2011 from RC Lens while he was just a teenager. The 26-year-old went on to win four Champions League trophies with Real Madrid since then. His start at the club was quite different. The Frenchman credited Jose Mourinho and Zinedine Zidane for helping him settle at Real Madrid. 

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Raphael Varane discusses his early days in Real Madrid

Varane stated that Mourinho and Zidane were the ones who saw some potential in him. He was not able to do anything during his early days at the Bernabeu. The World Cup-winning defender said that Mourinho and Zidane took a gamble on him. No one knew about him (neither the media nor the players). According to Varane, both of them were taking a risk on a young player. Well, the risk on Varane paid off pretty well.

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Raphael Varane also revealed that he didn't pick-up Zidane's call because he was studying for his exams. Zidane was Real Madrid's consultant during that time and was trying to contact Varane to offer him a contract at Real Madrid. The defender (while recalling that incident) said,  “I was going to say I was careless, but I was just irresponsible. I received so many phone calls, I was very tired and it was a stressful time. It’s true that I didn’t realize what was going on at the time.”

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Raphael Varane also had a few words to say about his Real Madrid counterpart Karim Benzema. He stated that Benzema is clearly at his peak and that he focused only on his football. According to Varane, the Real Madrid striker has embraced his role as the leader of the offence and has delivered successfully. Real Madrid are currently on the second-spot of the LaLiga's points table and are only trailing by two points from the table-toppers - Barcelona.

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