Few gamers have a CV to match Xabi Alonso’s. Not solely did he win a number of trophies at three of Europe’s largest golf equipment — Liverpool, Actual Madrid and Bayern Munich — however he additionally anchored the midfield in Spain’s golden period, successful the FIFA World Cup and two UEFA European Championships.
He was coached by a few of this century’s elite managers: Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho and Rafa Benítez. Everyone beloved enjoying with Alonso: former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has referred to as him “royalty” and “the very best central midfielder I ever performed alongside.”
Now, lower than three years into his profession as a top-level coach, Alonso is leaving Bayer Leverkusen to return to Actual Madrid, essentially the most pressurized job in world soccer. He does so having made his identify by successful the 2023-24 Bundesliga title with out dropping a single sport and with an thrilling, intense and efficient type of play. In different phrases, he is earned it.
“Xabi is likely one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever had,” Spain ahead Borja Iglesias, who was a part of Leverkusen’s title-winning squad, informed ESPN. That sentiment is shared by everybody ESPN spoke with who has labored with Alonso throughout his brief however profitable teaching profession, shedding gentle on how he has risen so quickly to the ranks of the sport’s prime managers.
Elite participant to rookie coach
When Rafa Benítez took over as supervisor of Liverpool in the summertime of 2004, after successful his second LaLiga title with Valencia, he made Alonso one in every of his first signings, bringing him in from Actual Sociedad for a £10.5 million switch charge. 9 months later, the midfielder scored within the Champions League remaining to assist Liverpool carry the trophy.
“Usually you’ve gotten some gamers in your groups which you can see as a coach, behind the mentality that they’ve,” Benítez informed ESPN. “Xabi was a intelligent participant, and you might assume ‘yeah, he shall be a coach.’ How good he will be — you by no means know.”
Luis García, now an ESPN analyst, arrived at Liverpool on the identical day as Alonso as a part of Benítez’s Spanish revolution. “He was already performing like a supervisor when he was at Liverpool,” García informed ESPN. “You may see that he was already sending messages to the gamers, placing them in the best positions, telling them what to do.
“He was an extension of the supervisor, each Luis Aragonés [with Spain] and Rafa Benítez. He was all the time in the best place, all the time understanding what was wanted. You thought that if he went into teaching, he’d do an excellent job. He has the temperament to handle conditions, he has expertise as a participant. He realized from the very best captains, and he is realized from the very best coaches.”
After retiring in 2017, Alonso did not wait lengthy to pursue a profession in administration. In April 2018 he started finding out for UEFA’s A and B teaching licenses, taking six weeks of intensive lessons on the headquarters of the Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF) amongst a star-studded group that included future Barcelona boss Xavi Hernández and Madrid’s reserve-team coach Raúl González.
Later that yr, he took his first job. Many former prime gamers are parachuted instantly — and infrequently prematurely — right into a place at an elite membership, for which they’re typically ill-prepared. Not Alonso. His first teaching function was with Actual Madrid’s Infantil A, the under-14s. Two of the younger gamers from his 2018-19 squad — Jacobo Ramón and Chema Andrés — have simply made their breakthrough into Madrid’s first staff this season, with Ramón scoring a dramatic late winner in opposition to Mallorca on his first league begin in Could to delay Barça’s title celebrations. One other, Álex Jiménez, is impressing at AC Milan.
“It was about taking the best steps,” García mentioned. “It is one thing that comes with [Xabi’s] persona. He by no means rushed his profession… He is Xabi Alonso. I am positive there have been plenty of groups able to have him, however he determined to go to the Actual Madrid academy first, then to Actual Sociedad: groups that he is aware of, and may management, and determine how one can do issues, and likewise make errors.”
Alonso is from Tolosa, a city within the Basque Nation not removed from San Sebastián. He started his profession as a participant there, at Actual Sociedad, serving to the staff end second in LaLiga earlier than becoming a member of Liverpool in 2004. When it was time for his first transfer in administration exterior of Madrid’s Valdebebas academy, he took cost of La Actual’s reserve staff, Sanse, in June 2019.
When Alonso arrived, right-back Álex Petxarroman — born and raised in San Sebastián — was already a part of the squad. “He is all the time been an idol at La Actual,” Petxarroman, who now performs for Deportivo La Coruña in Spain’s second division, informed ESPN. “My first impression was ‘wow.’ A world champion, a champion in all the pieces, comes to teach you. There have been a couple of nerves, ready to see what he could be like. However when he arrived, it was all very straightforward.”
In Spain, reserve groups compete in the identical league construction as first groups, with the caveat that they can’t be promoted to the identical degree as their senior counterparts. In Alonso’s first season, Sanse completed fifth of their group in Segunda B, the regionalized third tier of Spanish soccer. A season later, 2020-21, they had been promoted as champions, reaching the second tier for the primary time in 60 years, and for less than the second time within the membership’s historical past.
Petxarroman performed an necessary function that season, captaining the facet. “[Alonso] is near the gamers,” he mentioned. “He connects with you simply. Everybody speaks nicely of him on the golf equipment he is been at.
“I keep in mind once we gained promotion, it was very emotional. I would had a foul harm the yr earlier than, a cruciate [ligament tear]. He is the coach who bought essentially the most potential out of me, the coach who knew how one can get my greatest soccer out of me. The dialog we had on the pitch, simply after we gained promotion, has actually stayed with me.”
Actual Sociedad’s first-team squad is now filled with homegrown expertise, and a number of the gamers from Alonso’s era at the moment are first-team regulars, like midfielders Jon Olasagasti (21 LaLiga appearances this season), Beñat Turrientes (19) and defender Jon Pacheco (13).
Petxarroman says Alonso articulated his teaching philosophy, even then. “His groups need the ball, however in addition they need to be direct,” he tells ESPN. “The primary press, once you lose possession, needs to be intense. That is what he conveyed to us essentially the most. He has plenty of concepts in his head — for a way he desires his staff to play, with plenty of tactical variations — however an important rules are these.”
It is what you’d count on from a scholar of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, taking a little bit of every: tactically versatile, exhaustive and demanding, but in addition an astute, understated man-manager.
“I keep in mind at some point, we had been speaking,” Petxarroman mentioned, “and he was telling me that the best way I used to be coaching wasn’t the very best. He mentioned I wanted to coach every single day at 100% to get to the best degree. He informed me I had an enormous potential, however my approach of coaching wasn’t the very best. That always involves my head. It modified my approach of coaching. I wasn’t so relaxed, I began to provide much more.”
Sanse had been relegated from the second division in 2021-22, however there was no criticism of Alonso. He was already turning into a coach whose type mimicked his enjoying outlook: technical, eye-catching and with a tactical emphasis — not all the time the case when a prime participant strikes into teaching. After three years again in San Sebastián, it was time for his subsequent step. — AK
1:06
Keller: Bayer Leverkusen have completed one thing really outstanding
Kasey Keller reacts to Bayer Leverkusen successful their first Bundesliga title with 5 video games left to play.
Reworking Leverkusen into invincibles
For a lot of its existence, Bayer Leverkusen has been the prototypical practically membership. It produced good gamers and good seasons, however reliably got here up simply in need of any actual glory — therefore the notorious nickname “Neverkusen.” After two-and-a-half years and three trophies, nonetheless, Alonso leaves behind a membership reworked.
Alonso deftly steered Leverkusen out of the relegation zone when he arrived in October 2022, earlier than establishing his personal model of soccer. He held again a lot of the extra difficult concepts for his first preseason when the true tactical work started, with particular coaching workouts to assemble a possession-based system.
Then, in 2023-24 — Alonso’s first full season answerable for a senior staff — the Werkself lastly gained a Bundesliga title after 45 years within the prime flight, in addition to the German Cup. They claimed that home double with out dropping a single sport — their solely defeat of the entire season got here within the remaining of the Europa League.
They could not maintain that this season, ending second to Bayern Munich within the league and falling in disappointing style to them within the Champions League spherical of 16. However the easy proven fact that Alonso stayed for one more season after the 2024 breakthrough, regardless of openings at — and clear curiosity from — two of his former golf equipment (Bayern and Liverpool), strengthened Leverkusen’s new standing as Germany’s second-best staff.
Whereas sure rules had been non-negotiable — you’ll nearly by no means see a hoof-it-and-hope lengthy ball, for instance — Alonso’s strategy was marked as a lot as something by its flexibility. Leverkusen completed matches with a possession price beneath 50% in about 20% of matches, and had over 65% of the ball in 32% of video games, however they nonetheless averaged 2.19 factors per sport in his tenure when having fun with lower than 50% possession, for instance, and a pair of.15 when over that mark. They might counterattack, however they did not need to. They might ratchet up tight defensive stress with counter-pressing and a excessive line of defense, however they solely did it when the event referred to as for it.
This flexibility may backfire at occasions: Alonso was not proof against overthinking his lineup right here and there, and his swap from a three-man again line to 4 in opposition to Bayern and in a number of UEFA matches bore blended outcomes. However when Plan A did not work, Leverkusen normally had relentless, clutch play to depend on. Throughout his tenure they loved a plus-32 purpose differential from the eightieth minute onward; that features an unimaginable 34-5 margin in all competitions in 2023-24. They saved a virtually season-long unbeaten streak in stoppage time on what felt like numerous events. As a lot because the health coaching his workers launched contributed to so many late wins, it was the coach’s unwavering confidence and his gamers’ perception in him that pushed them over the road in so many important moments.
Clearly, the personnel helped. Alonso signed Granit Xhaka in 2023 to be his midfield normal. The previous Arsenal captain’s expertise, backed up by stalwart central defenders Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba, helped gamers equivalent to Victor Boniface, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz thrive and grow to be a few of Europe’s most fun younger attacking abilities. Alonso had what appeared like the proper personnel for his imaginative and prescient, however he additionally made a few of that personnel good. Earlier than Alonso, neither Frimpong or his fellow wingback Alejandro Grimaldo, for instance, had produced attacking numbers wherever near their Leverkusen output, and Wirtz’s personal growth went into overdrive beneath Alonso’s steerage.
1:56
Moreno: Alonso discovered a ‘grasp plan’ for Leverkusen’s unimaginable season
Ale Moreno praises Xabi Alonso after successful a home double with Bayer Leverkusen.
In some methods, it is simple to neglect that hiring Alonso felt nearly dangerous. He had not managed in a prime division earlier than, and whereas Leverkusen seemingly weren’t critical relegation candidates in 2022-23, they had been nonetheless seventeenth within the league desk when he arrived. However managing director Simon Rolfes appeared to right away know that he had discovered a kindred spirit.
“We already had fairly good info — evaluation about how he performs, what we may count on, how it might match our gamers, his persona, how he’s as an individual — and the private dialog I had with him confirmed this,” Rolfes informed ESPN final yr. “He may acquire [experience] right here, and we as a membership may additionally help him. I feel that is additionally necessary: We now have an excellent, secure membership. We now have an excellent teaching workers right here who will help him, superb guys. After which in my place, my relationship with him, I’ve to help him.”
Others on the membership had been additionally satisfied that Alonso’s aura and expertise as a participant, being a really clever and positionally conscious midfielder, may make him the proper alternative regardless of making such an enormous step up.
“Simon and Xabi see soccer equally, eager to have management of the sport,” Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro informed ESPN final yr. “Each had been midfielders who performed the identical place. What satisfied me was Xabi’s analytical expertise, how he analyzed a state of affairs, what he thought was wanted, what he realized from completely different coaches, so I had the impression he all the time wished to be taught. His capacity to take his experiences as a participant and put them into his function as a coach. He is clever, calm, bold.”
In Leverkusen, Alonso discovered a membership that matched his ambition. “There are larger golf equipment,” he mentioned following the staff’s first match after his departure was introduced, “however all of us care concerning the membership and the followers, the individuals from the membership. We need to make issues proper, and we glance after one another, and we glance after the membership — we need to do it the best approach.
“So with that perspective, with that mindset, you are feeling good right here. It is an amazing membership, and it has been nice for me, and it has been nice for therefore many gamers alongside the historical past. And it’ll be persevering with.” — BC
What he’ll convey to Actual Madrid
“What has been the important thing for me [at Leverkusen] is the gamers,” Alonso mentioned. “I’ve had their conviction, their perception. They gave me the privilege — ‘Sure, we need to observe you.’ They imagine, ‘Sure, this may work,’ they usually attempt to observe and imagine what we’re doing.”
Along with his expertise in Madrid, Alonso is aware of precisely what he is getting himself into, and his assured demeanor and monitor file actually counsel his potential there’s excessive. However reaching the identical degree of buy-in and tactical flexibility will nonetheless be difficult at a membership using at the least three gamers — Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham — with Ballon d’Or ambitions.
It’ll even be difficult with the personnel Actual Madrid at the moment have in non-attacking positions. The anticipated addition of right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold (one other participant whose acknowledged intention is to win the Ballon d’Or) may account for the retirement of Toni Kroos final summer time; the membership did not signal a like-for-like alternative, and the affect of his loss was felt when it comes to offensive transition and normal attacking stability. Alexander-Arnold is not a direct alternative both, however he’s the very best passing full-back within the sport, and his addition would imply Alonso would not need to ask fairly as a lot of 33-year-old Dani Carvajal.
It is good that Actual Madrid will do loads of very fairly issues in assault, however their defensive construction shifting ahead remains to be very a lot unknown. Even at 32 years previous, center-back Antonio Rüdiger stays able to placing in a 4,000-minute season, however Madrid fairly merely weren’t ok on the again in 2024-25. Ancelotti needed to primarily make do with a center-back rotation of Rüdiger, 22-year previous Raúl Asencio, midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni and oft-injured Éder Militão and David Alaba. Within the Champions League — the match by which Actual Madrid measures itself — they ranked twenty ninth out of 36 groups in photographs allowed per possession (0.145) and 18th in xG allowed per shot (0.16). In six knockout-phase matches, they conceded 10 targets, together with 5 over the 2 legs of their quarterfinal loss to Arsenal.
Madrid’s buildup play was nonetheless comparatively sound, nonetheless, and Alonso ought to be capable of construct on that. In case you couldn’t disrupt the circulate of the ball in opposition to Alonso’s Leverkusen, nothing else mattered. Leverkusen averaged at the least 7.5 passes per possession in 45% of his matches there, they usually averaged 2.57 factors per sport in these matches, dropping solely two in practically three seasons. When averaging beneath 7.5 passes per possession, they managed an honest however unspectacular 1.82 factors per sport in his tenure.
The statistics present clearly how Alonso likes to assault:
Leverkusen created at the least three buildup assaults (sequences with 10 or extra passes that finish in a shot or a contact contained in the field) in 57% of Alonso’s matches and averaged 2.38 factors per sport after they hit that mark (in comparison with 1.85 factors per sport after they did not).
They created at the least six buildup assaults in 28% of his matches and averaged 2.69 factors per sport in these matches.
After they averaged at the least 4.1 passes per sequence (67% of the time), they averaged 2.38 factors per sport versus 1.69 after they did not.
In video games with fewer than 90 possessions (60% of Alonso’s matches), they averaged 2.37 factors per sport versus 1.84 within the others.
Opponents allowed over 11 passes per defensive motion in 88% of Alonso’s matches, and Leverkusen averaged 2.21 factors per sport in these versus 1.69 within the others.
You need to velocity up and disrupt an Alonso staff, and even with out Kroos it can seemingly show tough to throw Actual Madrid off of their passing rhythm as soon as Alonso has put in his patterns of play.
“He likes the possession, and Actual Madrid is used to having possession,” Benítez mentioned. “So he can have good gamers, technically good gamers, they usually can do issues in the best way that he desires to do it. They may have extra management. They are going to be on prime of the opposite groups. And he has been doing that with Leverkusen for a few years.”
Nonetheless, he’ll nonetheless have to determine how one can pressure the difficulty at occasions regardless of having possibly the least pressing-friendly forwards within the sport. Amongst Champions League groups, Actual Madrid ranked thirty first in ball recoveries per match (38.0) and twenty seventh in excessive turnovers pressured (8.8) this season. Alonso had so many tactical playing cards to play in Leverkusen, and regardless of the epic expertise he can have at his disposal, it is not a assure that he’ll discover the identical flexibility in Madrid. In fact, he won’t want that flexibility if Plan A works nicely sufficient. — BC
1:59
How would Trent slot in at Actual Madrid with Alonso in cost?
Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens focus on how Trent Alexander-Arnold would possibly slot in at Actual Madrid if Xabi Alonso is known as as Carlo Ancelotti’s alternative.
What he’ll inherit at Actual Madrid
At Leverkusen, Alonso inherited a membership and a set of gamers that had been hungry for achievement. At Actual Madrid, success is anticipated always. In case you do not win, you are out, regardless of who you’re. Alonso turns into the seventh former Actual Madrid participant to take the reins on the membership; just one, Zinedine Zidane, lasted greater than a year-and-a-half in cost.
“Everyone’s anticipating that it’s a must to win,” mentioned Benítez, who spent a complete of just about 20 years at Actual Madrid as a participant within the membership’s academy and in varied teaching positions. “Ending second means nothing. So that it’s a must to win and that it’s a must to take care of the stress every single day, as a result of that’s the solely approach. Xabi has been at Liverpool, successful, after which he has been at Actual Madrid and Bayern. So he is aware of what stress means at this degree.”
Nonetheless, in some ways, Alonso arrives at Actual Madrid on the good time. Everyone accepts that the staff have underperformed. That is why Ancelotti is leaving, a yr earlier than his contract was as a result of expire.
Madrid finish the season and not using a main trophy — lacking out within the Champions League, LaLiga and the Copa del Rey — for the primary time since 2021. They have been overwhelmed 4 occasions by Barcelona in three competitions: 4-0 and 4-3 in LaLiga, 3-2 within the Copa del Rey remaining and 5-2 within the Spanish Supercopa. They’ve additionally misplaced to Athletic Membership, Espanyol, Actual Betis and Valencia within the league and to Lille, AC Milan, Liverpool and Arsenal in Europe. The room for enchancment, when it comes to outcomes, is clear.
By Ancelotti’s personal admission, he has did not make this group an efficient unit. “It has been an issue of stability,” the coach admitted after the win over Mallorca, his first sport because it was introduced he would take over as Brazil coach. Discovering a strategy to match Mbappé right into a facet that already contained Vini Jr., Bellingham and Rodrygo, with out fatally compromising the staff’s defensive integrity.
Ancelotti has tried all season, making a variety of switches — the simplest being an out-of-possession 4-4-2, with Bellingham and Rodrygo serving to out in midfield — with out sustained success. That is an inviting alternative for a coach with clear tactical concepts, and a robust persona and mandate to implement them.
Sources informed ESPN that Alonso was eager to take cost of the staff forward of the FIFA Membership World Cup as it might give him extra time with the gamers to implement his concepts forward of the 2025-26 season. There’s simply over a month between the tip of the Membership World Cup on July 13 and the seemingly begin date for the following LaLiga marketing campaign.
The challenges are appreciable. Mbappé and Vini Jr., two gamers preferring the left of the assault, should comprise an efficient entrance two. There are already indicators of this: Mbappé’s hat trick in Madrid’s 4-3 loss to Barcelona on Could 11 included two targets assisted by Vini Jr. However the pair’s off-the-ball work — famously, they’re the 2 outfield gamers who’ve spent most time strolling in LaLiga this season — have to be addressed.
There’s the difficulty of Bellingham, whose stellar debut season has been adopted by a harder follow-up. Bellingham scored 19 league targets in 2023-24, however solely eight in 2024-25. He nonetheless performs with protecting strapping on a shoulder he dislocated in November 2023. Sooner or later, the query of whether or not the midfielder wants surgical procedure must be addressed.
After which there’s Rodrygo, who sources have informed ESPN has grown uninterested in getting used as a makeweight in assault and needs to be picked on the left wing, the place he feels he’s only. Rodrygo’s entourage have made this clear to membership president Florentino Pérez; it stays to be seen if Alonso will grant his want. Rodrygo desires to listen to from the brand new coach earlier than taking any choices on his future.
Additional again, the midfield wants work, but it surely’s not but clear if that can imply new signings. Sources have informed ESPN that figures throughout the membership imagine within the potential of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga, though neither has but made a midfield place their very own, and the staff has continued to rely this season on 39-year-old Luka Modric with 25 begins in all competitions. Modric, the membership captain, is out of contract this summer time.
0:51
Marcotti: Huijsen’s £50m switch clause ‘like a free switch’
Gab Marcotti talks about Dean Huijsen’s reported switch to Actual Madrid from Bournemouth.
The staff’s vulnerability on the again this season is a matter, with 38 targets conceded in LaLiga to date, the best tally since 2019. Sources have informed ESPN that an acceptance that each high quality and numbers are wanted in protection. Solely the timing of Alexander-Arnold’s arrival must be finalized, whereas Madrid have already introduced the signing of Spain center-back Dean Huijsen from Bournemouth. They’re eager to signal a left-back, and sources have informed ESPN they’ve checked out bringing in Benfica’s Álvaro Carreras, though his potential switch charge is greater than Madrid would love.
So Alonso will have already got an improved squad to work with. Sources have informed ESPN that Ancelotti was eager for the squad to be strengthened final summer time, and in January, however he wasn’t heeded; Alonso will obtain the reinforcements his predecessor didn’t. And the Membership World Cup, whereas arriving earlier than Alonso would possibly like, provides him an early alternative — in a aggressive atmosphere, however with much less stress than he’d face in a extra established match — to ship outcomes and tangible indicators of progress.
Madrid presents a singular problem; nowhere are expectations greater, and this season has laid naked a staff with deep, structural flaws. “He is bought plenty of work to do,” García mentioned. “[It’s been] a really robust yr. With all of the accidents, who’s going to come back again in good situation? Militão has had two ACL [tears], Carvajal is not getting any youthful. They’re two pillars of the staff, two leaders, and also you want them. Will Madrid and Florentino Pérez permit him to construct his staff the best way Leverkusen did, deciding which gamers will arrive, and the system to be performed?”
However talking to individuals who know and have labored with Alonso, the consensus is that he has the teaching talents to succeed. “He has the flexibility to research and put together for video games, however he additionally has the flexibility to get by to gamers,” Celta Vigo and Spain ahead Borja Iglesias, who spent six months on mortgage at Leverkusen informed ESPN. “He has big charisma … Above all, we linked as individuals. He helped me to be myself. I feel he is one of many nice coaches I’ve had in my profession.”
And, maybe extra importantly, his historical past with Actual Madrid means he is aware of what awaits him when he takes over on the Bernabéu. “He is aware of the atmosphere, he is aware of the press, he is aware of the director [of football], he is aware of the president,” Benítez mentioned. “So I feel he has this nice expertise that can assist in the best way that he’ll handle the staff.” — AK
ESPN’s Spain reporter Rodrigo Faez, commentator Derek Rae and German soccer author Constantin Eckner contributed to this report
