Xabi Alonso returns to Real Madrid as coach to open a new page

It's now official, Xabi Alonso is back in the Spanish capital. The former Real Madrid defensive midfielder, between 2009 and 2014, will succeed Carlo Ancelotti on the Merengue bench as of June ^1st , the Spanish club announced on Sunday, May 25th in a press release . Not really a surprise: the name of the 43-year-old Basque technician has been coming up repeatedly for several weeks, with the confirmation of his departure from Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the season, on May 9th , then that of the Italian to Brazil to take the reins of the national team, on the 12th .

World champion (2010) and European champion (2008, 2012) with Spain, Xabi Alonso has left only good memories at Real Madrid, with whom he won everything – Champions League (2014), La Liga (2012), Copa del Rey (2011, 2014), Spanish Super Cup (2012) and European Super Cup (2014). And that's rather good, because the team is in full doubt after a complicated 2024-2025 season, concluded without any major trophy – something that had not happened since the 2020-2021 season.

Xabi Alonso, who hung up his boots in 2017, quickly turned to coaching, following the example of his father and his childhood friend Mikel Arteta, now at the helm of Arsenal. He started on the bench of Real Sociedad's B team (2019-2022) before taking charge of Bayer Leverkusen in October 2022. The North Rhine-Westphalian club was then dubbed "Neverkusen" for its propensity to fall just short of the title. A nickname they would shed in the Basque player's second season on the bench, winning the first-ever German championship title in its history. Better still, under his leadership, the club went on a run of 51 matches without defeat in all competitions ; a record in Europe.

Although the 2024-2025 season has been more mixed for the coach – second place in the Bundesliga, eliminations in the last 16 of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the German Cup – his method continues to seduce. "He knows how a dressing room works, he trusts the players, he consults us a lot, he is not on our backs all the time," summarized Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Amine Adli to Agence France-Presse.

A frequent presence during training sessions, the player explains that he "learned a lot" from his time with Rafael Benitez's Liverpool, Ancelotti's Real Madrid, and Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich. Many observers praise his tactical intelligence and the work he has done at Leverkusen. Thanks to demanding collective discipline, particularly involving each player in high pressing, he has managed to structure a team that is as solid in defense as it is capable of quickly getting to the opposing goal.

In mid-May, former La Roja coach Vicente del Bosque said on Cadena Ser radio that Xabi Alonso was "one of the players [he] saw most as a potential coach" , while Carlo Ancelotti believed he had "all the qualities" to become a "great" coach.

At Real Madrid, Xabi Alonso will first have to reorganize his squad. The departure of Toni Kroos, the metronome of Madrid's game, in 2024 has left a huge void in a squad unbalanced by injuries to its key defensive players and the accumulation of world-class attackers, including Frenchman Kylian Mbappé.

Contracted until the end of the 2027-2028 season, the coach will have the opportunity to make his debut with the Merengue in the coming weeks during the Club World Cup – from June 14 to July 13 in the United States.