The most coveted coach of the moment, the Spaniard will continue with Bayer Leverkusen next season.
He is one of the most coveted technicians in Europe but he has decided to continue his adventure in Leverkusen: the Spaniard Xabi Alonso put an end to the rumors of a possible departure by announcing that he would continue his story next season with the Rhineland club.
“Last week I had a good meeting with Simon (Rolfes, the sporting director), Fernando (Carlo, the president) and I gave them my decision to continue being the coach of Bayer Leverkusen,” he said. underlined Xabi Alonso, during his traditional press conference the day before the match, a trip on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) to the Hoffenheim pitch, for the 27th day of the Bundesliga.
Contrary to his usual, the 42-year-old Basque spoke in English in his opening remarks, while he always gives his press conferences in the language of Goethe, slightly tinged with a Spanish accent.
Xabi Alonso finished his playing career at Bayern Munich between 2014 and 2017, and has sat on the Leverkusen bench since the fall of 2022, for his first major experience after coaching the Real Madrid youth team (2018). /19) and the Real Sociedad reserve (2019/22).
“At the moment I think this is the right place for me to continue to develop as a coach. I am still a young coach and I feel that this is the right place,” explained the technician who arrived on the banks of the Rhine in October 2022 for an initial contract until the summer of 2024, cleverly extended to the summer of 2023 by Bayer Leverkusen for two seasons until the summer of 2026.
This extension did not, however, prevent rumors from emerging around his future, with three destinations which came back insistently: Real Madrid, then Liverpool and Bayern, namely the three big clubs where he played between 2004 and 2017.
The surprise announcement last December of the one-season extension of Carlo Ancelotti, although expected to take the Brazilian selection, on the Real bench closed the Madrid door.
Dantesque end of season
A few weeks later, Jürgen Klopp explained that he would end his time on the Liverpool bench at the end of the 2023/24 financial year and Bayern specified that they would end their collaboration with Thomas Tuchel also at the end of the season.
The name of Xabi Alonso was then circulated to take his place on the benches of these two prestigious clubs. Xabi Alonso’s announcement on Friday leaves open the succession to the position of coach for Liverpool and Bayern.
This clarification should above all allow the club on the outskirts of Cologne to calmly approach the last two most important months in its history, with a first German championship title awaiting it.
Nine days before the end of the Bundesliga season, Leverkusen are ten points ahead of Bayern Munich and seem very well on their way to ending the Bavarian decade of hegemony over German football that began in the spring of 2013.
Still undefeated in 38 matches in all competitions this season, Bayer Leverkusen is also involved in the German Cup (semi-final against Fortuna Düsseldorf) and the Europa League (quarter-final against the English side West Ham).
The club, founded in 1904 by the chemist Bayer, has only won two trophies in its 120 years of existence: the UEFA Cup (ancestor of the Europa League) in 1988 and the German Cup in 1993.
This season, he can add three lines to this list marked by numerous second places (in the championship in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2011, in the Cup in 2002, 2009, 2020 or in the Champions League in 2002), which gives him earned the very unenviable nicknames of Neverkusen or Vizekusen
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