Xabi Alonso Announces His Departure at the End of the Season
Xabi Alonso, the current Bayer Leverkusen coach, has announced that at the end of the Bundesliga season, he will be leaving his current job at the club. It was largely expected that Xabi Alonso was going to leave to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. Xabi Alonso’s time as head coach at Bayer Leverkusen was a successful stint where he came in to save them from relegation in his first couple of months at the club, and then in his first full season, he turned the club into Bundesliga champions with an unbeaten record. When Xabi Alonso signed to be the head coach for Bayern Leverkusen, they included a clause that would force the club to negotiate with Real Madrid, Liverpool, or Bayern Munich if any of those clubs were interested in signing Xabi Alonso to be their next head coach.
Real Madrid’s current coaching predicament meant they were the first club on that list to show interest in signing Xabi Alonso. The more events are developing in both Xabi Alonso’s career decisions and the current trajectory of Real Madrid, it looks like the rumors that have been echoing in the world of European soccer may be coming into fruition. It is the only likely destination based on the current situations at Liverpool and Bayern Munich, which have both won their respective domestic leagues this season. The fans of Los Blancos will be delighted to sign Xabi Alonso this summer and see what kind of changes he can bring to the club to help the club step back into dominance after a lackluster season.
Xabi Alonso is a coach who likes to set up his team with a system of play, which is the opposite of the philosophy of Carlo Ancelotti, who prefers to keep a mostly hands-off approach to how he coaches his players. If Xabi Alonso is to sign for Real Madrid, he has a plethora of players to put his preferred system of playing into practice. Players like Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé, and Vinicius Júnior will likely be key players in any kind of system he chooses to implement. He may also bring players from Leverkusen with him, like Florian Wirtz and Jonathan Tah, or players from elsewhere to reinforce places in the squad that are lacking due to injury or possible departing players. Some of these players he may decide to sign from other clubs are likely to be William Saliba and Dean Huijsen.
If Xabi Alonso is to join Real Madrid to lead them next season, and hopefully for many to come, he will look to replicate the success of another former Real Madrid midfield legend turned coach, Zinedine Zidane. These are large shoes to fill, but Xabi Alonso’s game knowledge and the respect he commands in the professional world of soccer will be a great tool in any job he decides to take. Including if he decides to take the job at Real Madrid. The fandom at Real Madrid will be hoping for many seasons full of silverware with attractive soccer under Xabi Alonso.
