Xabi Alonso to leave Bayer Leverkusen: Real Madrid likely next for Spanish manager, per multiple reports

Spanish manager Xabi Alonso has announced he will leave Bayer Leverkusen at the end of the 2024-25 season. This preceeds the manager joining Real Madrid according to multiple reports. Alonso, who coached the German side over the last three years since he joined in October 2022, won the 2023-24 Bundesliga title with Bayer Leverkusen, the first one in the club's history. He's now expected to replace Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, with the Italian manager reportedly leaving the Spanish giants before the summer to join Brazil as the new head coach of the national team.

While Real Madrid are yet to make an announcement on the future of their managerial role, Xabi Alonso has announced his future during the pre-match press conference ahead of the Borussia Dortmund match, the last one of the season that will take place at their home stadium, at the BayArena.

"The club and I have agreed that these two games will be my last as Bayer Leverkusen coach.", he said during the press-conference. "I owe great thanks to Bayer Leverkusen, my players and staff, all the employees of the club and last but not least the fantastic fans. Our success was the result of an outstanding team performance. This club, who showed exceptional trust in me, very much deserved to win the German league title for the first time. My thanks and admiration go to everybody who helped to make this triumph happen including the DFB Pokal win in Berlin. Bayer are ready for the future. The positive path will continue and I will be excited to follow it."

"Together with Xabi Alonso we have written a success story just through winning the league title without defeat in a way not seen in German football," said Werner Wenning, chair of the shareholders committee at Bayer. "He was an outstanding ambassador at all times as coach both for our club as well as for the whole Bundesliga. Therefore, we are very grateful to Xabi Alonso."

Fernando Carro, as CEO, highlighted the sporting reputation that Bayer 04 has gained over the past two and a half seasons both at home and abroad: "Bayer 04 have achieved lasting recognition in the football world through the targeted success under Xabi Alonso. Bringing the Meisterschale to Leverkusen unbeaten plus winning the DFB Pokal, reaching the Europa League final and winning the Supercup makes us very proud," declared Carro.

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As a manager, in addition to winning the 2023-24 Bundesliga title with Bayer Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso has also won the 2024 DFB Pokal and the 2024 German Supercup, and only losing to Atalanta in the 2023-24 Europa League final ended Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten run at 51 games under the Spanish manager. Alonso started his managerial career in 2018 at Real Madrid where he coached the youth team Infantil A of the club before moving to coach the second team of Real Sociedad until the summer 2022.

In October of the same year, Bayer Leverkusen appointed Alonso to become their new head coach, starting what would be one of the most exciting chapters over the past years anywhere in Europe. As a player, Xabi Alonso won the UEFA Champions League twice, in 2005 with Liverpool and in 2014 with Real Madrid, the FIFA World Cup in 2010 with Spain, UEFA European Championships twice in 2008 and 2012, one La Liga title with Real Madrid in 2012, three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and multiple domestic cups with Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich over his career, making him one of the most iconic midfielders in the recent history of the sport.