Real Madrid sacks Benitez. Zidane takes the job.

Real Madrid confirmed on Monday that it had fired manager Rafael Benitez and appointed club legend Zinedine Zidane as his replacement.
The team currently sits third in the La Liga table, four points adrift of leaders Atletico. They were held 2-2 on Sunday by Valencia at the Mestalla in Benitez's last match in charge of the side.
A Champions League winner with Liverpool, this was Benitez's first season at the helm of the team, only having signed a three-year deal in June to succeed Carlo Ancelotti. Los Blancos have lost three matches thus far this term, including an embarrassing 4-0 home defeat to arch rivals Barcelona in November.

The team was disqualified from the Copa del Rey last month after fielding an ineligible player. Russian winger Denis Cheryshev, who was on loan last season at Villareal, should have been suspended for Real's tie with third-tier Cadiz due to yellow card accumulation in last year's competition, but played and scored in a 3-1 win.
Zidane had been coaching with Real Madrid Castilla, the club's B-team. The World Cup-winning Frenchman spent five seasons as a player with Real and captured the 2002 Champions League title with the team. The 43-year-old has been in the Real administrative ranks since the summer of 2010 when he was appointed as an advisor to then-manager Jose Mourinho. A year later, he was named the club's sporting director and served under Ancelotti as an assistant during the 2013 season.
Real is next in action on Sunday when it hosts Deportivo at the Bernabeu.

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