CHAMPIONS LEAGUE :Zidane On Verge Of Greatness As Real Take On Atletico In Champions League Final

*SET FOR THE CHALLENGE

Few truly great players have found success as coaches. Zinedine Zidane is on the brink of winning the Champions League with Real Madrid less than six months after being appointed. But Atletico Madrid stand in his way.

The late Johan Cruyff. Franz Beckenbauer maybe. The list of really great players who went on to also win top silverware while in the dugout are few and far between.

Former France maestro Zinedine Zidane (pictured above), who masterminded their World Cup 1998 and Euro 2000 triumphs on the pitch as well as inspring Real Madrid to a 2002 Champions League title, could be about to join that elite group.

Saturday's Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Milan offers Real coach Zidane the chance to get his hands on European club football's most glittering prize less than six month after taking charge.

Few could have expected such a rapid successful rise for a coach who as a player was quiet at times and explosively hot headed at others, as Italy´s Marco Materazzi can testify after being headbutted in the chest in the 2006 World Cup final.

His only managerial experience before replacing the sacked Rafa Benitez in January was 18 months spent at Real´s B team.

"Playing for Real Madrid was the best thing that ever happened to me," Zidane said this week. "I dreamed of playing for Real Madrid - I wanted to wear that famous white shirt. Now I'm lucky enough to coach the greatest club in the world, so I'm a happy man."

The saying goes that great players do not make great managers. Their skills on the field were so awe inspiring that they find it difficult to work with players who are less talented than they were. Frustration therefore sets in. But not with Zidane it seems.

Cruyff, who along with Zidane would make it into most fans´ list of top 10 players, won the European Cup three times with Ajax in the 1970s and lifted the same trophy as a coach when Barcelona triumphed for the first time in 1992.