When you rattle through the mentors Xabi Alonso had the good fortune of learning from during a storied playing career, you wonder how on earth he could not end up becoming one of Europe’s finest young coaches.
The World Cup winner, once of Real Madrid, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, learned the art of organisation from Rafa Benitez. Alonso also worked under arguably the game’s finest man-manager in Carlo Ancelotti in the Spanish capital, while Pep Guardiola taught this old dog plenty of new tricks before hanging up his boots in Bavaria.
He was a key cog in the Madrid machine which broke Barcelona’s La Liga stranglehold under Jose Mourinho too.
Hell, Alonso even lived next door to Mikel Arteta – the man who has Arsenal dreaming of a first Premier League title in two decades – while his dad, Periko, coached hometown club Real Sociedad at the turn of the Century.
Xabi Alonso making a big impact in the Bundesliga
“His father was a manager, so he grew up similar to me,” Alonso’s former Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho told Top Football back in 2019. “Then he became a player. Of course, much better than I was! He became a player, a top player.
“His position on the pitch and his knowledge of the game; very high.
“He played in Spain, in England and in Germany. And he was coached by Guardiola with Bayern. By myself at Real Madrid. By Ancelotti in Real Madrid, and by Benitez in Liverpool.
“So, I think if you put all this together, Xabi has conditions to be a very good coach.”
Four years on, the rather remarkable impact Alonso has made during his first ever senior coaching role suggests that Mourinho was onto something. Having taken over a Bayer Leverkusen team second-bottom in the Bundesliga back in October, this was far from the managerial equivalent of lowering yourself into a warm bath.
Reports from The Sun suggesting that 41-year-old Alonso is now a ‘strong candidate’ to replace David Moyes at West Ham United are testament to how well the Champions League winner has settled into the Bay Arena hotseat.
Sunday’s 2-0 victory over RB Leipzig means Bayer Leverkusen have gone from 17th to sixth in the space of just a few months. Die Werkself are unbeaten in 13 games – winning ten of them – and could still end Alonso’s superb first season at the helm with a Champions League spot and a Europa League trophy.
‘He is very understanding’
“We have changed our style of play, our way of getting the ball out,” rampaging right-back Jeremie Frimpong tells Relevo; one of a number of players producing career-best performances under Alonso.
“We all understand how we play, how we press and that kind of thing.”
“He is very understanding with the footballers, and very talkative with all of us. When he explains something, he explains it until you understand it. As a player, that makes you feel very comfortable, you know you can ask him things.”
You only have to look at the struggles of one of Alonso’s former team-mates – Steven Gerrard – to realise that a promising first tenure in management is not guaranteed to be emulated in the Premier League.
But Xabi Alonso is clearly putting all the lessons he learned from the 21st century’s finest tactical minds to very good use as he continues to transform Bayer Leverkusen’s season.
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