How Xabi Alonso made his rapid rise from rookie coach to Real Madrid

Few players have a CV to match Xabi Alonso’s. Not only did he win multiple trophies at three of Europe’s biggest clubs — Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich — but he also anchored the midfield in Spain’s golden era, winning the FIFA World Cup and two UEFA European Championships.

He was coached by some of this century’s elite managers: Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho and Rafa Benítez. Everybody loved playing with Alonso: former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has called him “royalty” and “the best central midfielder I ever played alongside.”

Now, less than three years into his career as a top-level coach, Alonso is leaving Bayer Leverkusen to return to Real Madrid, the most pressurized job in world football. He does so having made his name by winning the 2023-24 Bundesliga title without losing a single game and with an exciting, intense and effective style of play. In other words, he’s earned it.

“Xabi is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had,” Spain forward Borja Iglesias, who was part of Leverkusen’s title-winning squad, told ESPN. That sentiment is shared by everyone ESPN spoke with who has worked with Alonso during his short but successful coaching career, shedding light on how he has risen so rapidly to the ranks of the game’s top managers.

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Elite player to rookie coach

When Rafa Benítez took over as manager of Liverpool in the summer of 2004, after winning his second LaLiga title with Valencia, he made Alonso one of his first signings, bringing him in from Real Sociedad for a £10.5 million transfer fee. Nine months later, the midfielder scored in the Champions League final to help Liverpool lift the trophy.

“Normally you have some players in your teams that you can see as a coach, behind the mentality that they have,” Benítez told ESPN. “Xabi was a clever player, and you could think ‘yeah, he will be a coach.’ How good he can be — you never know.”

Luis García, now an ESPN analyst, arrived at Liverpool on the same day as Alonso as part of Benítez’s Spanish revolution. “He was already acting like a manager when he was at Liverpool,” García told ESPN. “You could see that he was already sending messages to the players, putting them in the right positions, telling them what to do.

“He was an extension of the manager, both Luis Aragonés [with Spain] and Rafa Benítez. He was always in the right position, always understanding what was needed. You thought that if he went into coaching, he’d do a good job. He has the temperament to manage situations, he has experience as a player. He learned from the best captains, and he’s learned from the best coaches.”

After retiring in 2017, Alonso didn’t wait long to pursue a career in management. In April 2018 he began studying for UEFA’s A and B coaching licenses, taking six weeks of intensive classes at the headquarters of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) among a star-studded group that included future Barcelona boss Xavi Hernández and Madrid’s reserve-team coach Raúl González.

Later that year, he took his first job. Many former top players are parachuted immediately — and often prematurely — into a position at an elite club, for which they are often ill-prepared. Not Alonso. His first coaching role was with Real Madrid’s Infantil A, the under-14s. Two of the young players from his 2018-19 squad — Jacobo Ramón and Chema Andrés — have just made their breakthrough into Madrid’s first team this season, with Ramón scoring a dramatic late winner against Mallorca on his first league start in May to delay Barça’s title celebrations. Another, Álex Jiménez, is impressing at AC Milan.

“It was about taking the right steps,” García said. “It’s something that comes with [Xabi’s] personality. He never rushed his career… He’s Xabi Alonso. I’m sure there were a lot of teams ready to have him, but he decided to go to the Real Madrid academy first, then to Real Sociedad: teams that he knows, and can control, and decide how to do things, and also make mistakes.”

Alonso is from Tolosa, a town in the Basque Country not far from San Sebastián. He began his career as a player there, at Real Sociedad, helping the team finish second in LaLiga before joining Liverpool in 2004. When it was time for his first move in management outside of Madrid’s Valdebebas academy, he took charge of La Real’s reserve team, Sanse, in June 2019.

When Alonso arrived, right-back Álex Petxarroman — born and raised in San Sebastián — was already part of the squad. “He’s always been an idol at La Real,” Petxarroman, who now plays for Deportivo La Coruña in Spain’s second division, told ESPN. “My first impression was ‘wow.’ A world champion, a champion in everything, comes to coach you. There were a few nerves, waiting to see what he would be like. But when he arrived, it was all very easy.”

In Spain, reserve teams compete in the same league structure as first teams, with the caveat that they cannot be promoted to the same level as their senior counterparts. In Alonso’s first season, Sanse finished fifth in their group in Segunda B, the regionalized third tier of Spanish football. A season later, 2020-21, they were promoted as champions, reaching the second tier for the first time in 60 years, and for only the second time in the club’s history.

Petxarroman played an important role that season, captaining the side. “[Alonso] is close to the players,” he said. “He connects with you easily. Everyone speaks well of him at the clubs he’s been at.

“I remember when we won promotion, it was very emotional. I’d had a bad injury the year before, a cruciate [ligament tear]. He’s the coach who got the most potential out of me, the coach who knew how to get my best football out of me. The conversation we had on the pitch, just after we won promotion, has really stayed with me.”

Real Sociedad’s first-team squad is now packed with homegrown talent, and some of the players from Alonso’s generation are now 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 coaching philosophy, even then. “His teams want the ball, but they also want to be direct,” he tells ESPN. “The first press, when you lose possession, has to be intense. That’s what he conveyed to us the most. He has a lot of ideas in his head — for how he wants his team to play, with a lot of tactical variations — but the most important principles are those.”

It’s what you’d expect from a student of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, taking a little of each: tactically flexible, exhaustive and demanding, but also an astute, understated man-manager.

“I remember one day, we were talking,” Petxarroman said, “and he was telling me that the way I was training wasn’t the best. He said I needed to train every day at 100% to get to the highest level. He told me I had a huge potential, but my way of training wasn’t the best. That often comes to my head. It changed my way of training. I wasn’t so relaxed, I started to give a lot more.”

Sanse were relegated from the second division in 2021-22, but there was no criticism of Alonso. He was already becoming a coach whose style mimicked his playing outlook: technical, eye-catching and with a tactical emphasis — not always the case when a top player moves into coaching. After three years back in San Sebastián, it was time for his next step. — AK

Transforming Leverkusen into invincibles

For much of its existence, Bayer Leverkusen has been the prototypical nearly club. It produced good players and good seasons, but reliably came up just short of any real glory — hence the infamous nickname “Neverkusen.” After two-and-a-half years and three trophies, however, Alonso leaves behind a club transformed.

Alonso deftly steered Leverkusen out of the relegation zone when he arrived in October 2022, before establishing his own brand of football. He held back most of the more complicated ideas for his first preseason when the real tactical work began, with specific training exercises to construct a possession-based system.

Then, in 2023-24 — Alonso’s first full season in charge of a senior team — the Werkself finally won a Bundesliga title after 45 years in the top flight, as well as the German Cup. They claimed that domestic double without losing a single game — their only defeat of the whole season came in the final of the Europa League.

They couldn’t sustain that this season, finishing second to Bayern Munich in the league and falling in disappointing fashion to them in the Champions League round of 16. But the simple fact that Alonso stayed for another season after the 2024 breakthrough, despite openings at — and clear interest from — two of his former clubs (Bayern and Liverpool), reinforced Leverkusen’s new status as Germany’s second-best team.

While certain principles were non-negotiable — you would almost never see a hoof-it-and-hope long ball, for example — Alonso’s approach was marked as much as anything by its flexibility. Leverkusen finished matches with a possession rate under 50% in about 20% of matches, and had over 65% of the ball in 32% of games, but they still averaged 2.19 points per game in his tenure when enjoying less than 50% possession, for example, and 2.15 when over that mark. They could counterattack, but they didn’t have to. They could ratchet up tight defensive pressure with counter-pressing and a high defensive line, but they only did it when the occasion called for it.

This flexibility could backfire at times: Alonso was not immune to overthinking his lineup here and there, and his switch from a three-man back line to four against Bayern and in several UEFA matches bore mixed results. But when Plan A didn’t work, Leverkusen usually had relentless, clutch play to rely on. During his tenure they enjoyed a plus-32 goal differential from the 80th minute onward; that includes an incredible 34-5 margin in all competitions in 2023-24. They saved a nearly season-long unbeaten streak in stoppage time on what felt like countless occasions. As much as the fitness training his staff introduced contributed to so many late wins, it was the coach’s unwavering confidence and his players’ belief in him that pushed them over the line in so many critical moments.

Obviously, the personnel helped. Alonso signed Granit Xhaka in 2023 to be his midfield general. The former Arsenal captain’s experience, backed up by stalwart central defenders Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba, helped players such as Victor Boniface, Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz thrive and develop into some of Europe’s most exciting young attacking talents. Alonso had what seemed like the perfect personnel for his vision, but he also made some of that personnel perfect. Before Alonso, neither Frimpong or his fellow wingback Alejandro Grimaldo, for example, had produced attacking numbers anywhere close to their Leverkusen output, and Wirtz’s own development went into overdrive under Alonso’s guidance.

In some ways, it’s easy to forget that hiring Alonso felt almost risky. He had not managed in a top division before, and while Leverkusen likely weren’t serious relegation candidates in 2022-23, they were still 17th in the league table when he arrived. But managing director Simon Rolfes seemed to immediately know that he had found a kindred spirit.

“We already had quite good information — analysis about how he plays, what we could expect, how it would fit our players, his personality, how he is as a person — and the personal conversation I had with him confirmed this,” Rolfes told ESPN last year. “He could gain [experience] here, and we as a club could also support him. I think that’s also important: We have a good, stable club. We have a good coaching staff here who can help him, very good guys. And then in my position, my relationship with him, I have to support him.”

Others at the club were also convinced that Alonso’s aura and experience as a player, being a very intelligent and positionally aware midfielder, could make him the perfect choice despite making such a big step up.

“Simon and Xabi see football similarly, wanting to have control of the game,” Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro told ESPN last year. “Both were midfielders who played the same position. What convinced me was Xabi’s analytical skills, how he analyzed a situation, what he thought was needed, what he learned from different coaches, so I had the impression he always wanted to learn. His ability to take his experiences as a player and put them into his role as a coach. He’s intelligent, calm, ambitious.”

In Leverkusen, Alonso found a club that matched his ambition. “There are bigger clubs,” he said following the team’s first match after his departure was announced, “but we all care about the club and the fans, the people from the club. We want to make things right, and we look after each other, and we look after the club — we want to do it the right way.

“So with that attitude, with that mindset, you feel good here. It’s a great club, and it has been great for me, and it has been great for so many players along the history. And it’s going to be continuing.” — BC

What he’ll bring to Real Madrid

“What has been the key for me [at Leverkusen] is the players,” Alonso said. “I have had their conviction, their belief. They gave me the privilege — ‘Yes, we want to follow you.’ They believe, ‘Yes, this can work,’ and they try to follow and believe what we are doing.”

With his experience in Madrid, Alonso knows exactly what he’s getting himself into, and his assured demeanor and track record certainly suggest his potential there is high. But achieving the same level of buy-in and tactical flexibility will still be tricky at a club employing at least three players — Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham — with Ballon d’Or ambitions.

It will also be tricky with the personnel Real Madrid currently have in non-attacking positions. The expected addition of right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold (another player whose stated aim is to win the Ballon d’Or) could account for the retirement of Toni Kroos last summer; the club didn’t sign a like-for-like replacement, and the impact of his loss was felt in terms of offensive transition and general attacking stability. Alexander-Arnold isn’t a direct replacement either, but he is the best passing full-back in the sport, and his addition would mean Alonso wouldn’t have to ask quite as much of 33-year-old Dani Carvajal.

It’s good that Real Madrid will do plenty of very pretty things in attack, but their defensive structure moving forward is still very much unknown. Even at 32 years old, center-back Antonio Rüdiger remains capable of putting in a 4,000-minute season, but Madrid quite simply weren’t good enough at the back in 2024-25. Ancelotti had to primarily make do with a center-back rotation of Rüdiger, 22-year old Raúl Asencio, midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni and oft-injured Éder Militão and David Alaba. In the Champions League — the tournament by which Real Madrid measures itself — they ranked 29th out of 36 teams in shots allowed per possession (0.145) and 18th in xG allowed per shot (0.16). In six knockout-phase matches, they conceded 10 goals, including five over the two legs of their quarterfinal loss to Arsenal.

Madrid’s buildup play was still relatively sound, however, and Alonso should be able to build on that. If you could not disrupt the flow of the ball against Alonso’s Leverkusen, nothing else mattered. Leverkusen averaged at least 7.5 passes per possession in 45% of his matches there, and they averaged 2.57 points per game in those matches, losing only two in nearly three seasons. When averaging under 7.5 passes per possession, they managed a decent but unspectacular 1.82 points per game in his tenure.

The statistics show clearly how Alonso likes to attack:

Leverkusen created at least three buildup attacks (sequences with 10 or more passes that end in a shot or a touch inside the box) in 57% of Alonso’s matches and averaged 2.38 points per game when they hit that mark (compared to 1.85 points per game when they didn’t).

They created at least six buildup attacks in 28% of his matches and averaged 2.69 points per game in those matches.

When they averaged at least 4.1 passes per sequence (67% of the time), they averaged 2.38 points per game versus 1.69 when they didn’t.

In games with fewer than 90 possessions (60% of Alonso’s matches), they averaged 2.37 points per game versus 1.84 in the others.

Opponents allowed over 11 passes per defensive action in 88% of Alonso’s matches, and Leverkusen averaged 2.21 points per game in those versus 1.69 in the others.

You have to speed up and disrupt an Alonso team, and even without Kroos it will likely prove difficult to throw Real Madrid off of their passing rhythm once Alonso has installed his patterns of play.

“He likes the possession, and Real Madrid is used to having possession,” Benítez said. “So he will have good players, technically good players, and they can do things in the way that he wants to do it. They will have more control. They will be on top of the other teams. And he has been doing that with Leverkusen for a couple of years.”

However, he’ll still have to figure out how to force the issue at times despite having maybe the least pressing-friendly forwards in the sport. Among Champions League teams, Real Madrid ranked 31st in ball recoveries per match (38.0) and 27th in high turnovers forced (8.8) this season. Alonso had so many tactical cards to play in Leverkusen, and despite the epic talent he will have at his disposal, it’s not a guarantee that he’ll find the same flexibility in Madrid. Of course, he might not need that flexibility if Plan A works well enough. — BC

What he’ll inherit at Real Madrid

At Leverkusen, Alonso inherited a club and a set of players that were hungry for success. At Real Madrid, success is expected at all times. If you don’t win, you’re out, no matter who you are. Alonso becomes the seventh former Real Madrid player to take the reins at the club; only one, Zinedine Zidane, lasted more than a year-and-a-half in charge.

“Everybody’s expecting that you have to win,” said Benítez, who spent a total of almost two decades at Real Madrid as a player in the club’s academy and in various coaching positions. “Finishing second means nothing. So you know that you have to win and you know that you have to deal with the pressure every day, because that is the only way. Xabi has been at Liverpool, winning, and then he has been at Real Madrid and Bayern. So he knows what pressure means at this level.”

Still, in many ways, Alonso arrives at Real Madrid at the perfect time. Everybody accepts that the team have underperformed. That’s why Ancelotti is leaving, a year before his contract was due to expire.

Madrid end the season without a major trophy — missing out in the Champions League, LaLiga and the Copa del Rey — for the first time since 2021. They’ve been beaten four times by Barcelona in three competitions: 4-0 and 4-3 in LaLiga, 3-2 in the Copa del Rey final and 5-2 in the Spanish Supercopa. They’ve also lost to Athletic Club, Espanyol, Real Betis and Valencia in the league and to Lille, AC Milan, Liverpool and Arsenal in Europe. The room for improvement, in terms of results, is evident.

By Ancelotti’s own admission, he has failed to make this group an effective unit. “It’s been a problem of balance,” the coach admitted after the win over Mallorca, his first game since it was announced he would take over as Brazil coach. Finding a way to fit Mbappé into a side that already contained Vini Jr., Bellingham and Rodrygo, without fatally compromising the team’s defensive integrity.

Ancelotti has tried all season, making a number of switches — the most effective being an out-of-possession 4-4-2, with Bellingham and Rodrygo helping out in midfield — without sustained success. This is an inviting opportunity for a coach with clear tactical ideas, and a strong personality and mandate to enforce them.

Sources told ESPN that Alonso was keen to take charge of the team ahead of the FIFA Club World Cup as it would give him more time with the players to implement his ideas ahead of the 2025-26 season. There is just over a month between the end of the Club World Cup on July 13 and the likely start date for the next LaLiga campaign.

The challenges are considerable. Mbappé and Vini Jr., two players who prefer the left of the attack, must comprise an effective front two. There are already signs of this: Mbappé’s hat trick in Madrid’s 4-3 loss to Barcelona on May 11 included two goals assisted by Vini Jr. But the pair’s off-the-ball work — famously, they are the two outfield players who have spent most time walking in LaLiga this season — must be addressed.

There is the issue of Bellingham, whose stellar debut season has been followed by a more difficult follow-up. Bellingham scored 19 league goals in 2023-24, but only eight in 2024-25. He still plays with protective strapping on a shoulder he dislocated in November 2023. At some point, the question of whether the midfielder needs surgery will have to be addressed.

And then there is Rodrygo, who sources have told ESPN has grown tired of being used as a makeweight in attack and wants to be picked on the left wing, where he feels he is most effective. Rodrygo’s entourage have made this clear to club president Florentino Pérez; it remains to be seen if Alonso will grant his wish. Rodrygo wants to hear from the new coach before taking any decisions on his future.

Further back, the midfield needs work, but it’s not yet clear if that will mean new signings. Sources have told ESPN that figures within the club believe in the potential of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga, although neither has yet made a midfield position their own, and the team has continued to rely this season on 39-year-old Luka Modric with 25 starts in all competitions. Modric, the club captain, is out of contract this summer.

The team’s vulnerability at the back this season is an issue, with 38 goals conceded in LaLiga so far, the highest tally since 2019. Sources have told ESPN that an acceptance that both quality and numbers are needed in defense. Only the timing of Alexander-Arnold’s arrival needs to be finalized, while Madrid have already announced the signing of Spain center-back Dean Huijsen from Bournemouth. They are keen to sign a left-back, and sources have told ESPN they have looked at bringing in Benfica’s Álvaro Carreras, although his potential transfer fee is higher than Madrid would like.

So Alonso will already have an improved squad to work with. Sources have told ESPN that Ancelotti was keen for the squad to be strengthened last summer, and in January, but he wasn’t heeded; Alonso will receive the reinforcements his predecessor did not. And the Club World Cup, while arriving sooner than Alonso might like, gives him an early opportunity — in a competitive environment, but with less pressure than he’d face in a more established tournament — to deliver results and tangible signs of progress.

Madrid presents a unique challenge; nowhere are expectations higher, and this season has laid bare a team with deep, structural flaws. “He’s got a lot of work to do,” García said. “[It’s been] a very tough year. With all the injuries, who’s going to come back in good condition? Militão has had two ACL [tears], Carvajal isn’t getting any younger. They are two pillars of the team, two leaders, and you need them. Will Madrid and Florentino Pérez allow him to build his team the way Leverkusen did, deciding which players will arrive, and the system to be played?”

But speaking to people who know and have worked with Alonso, the consensus is that he has the coaching abilities to succeed. “He has the ability to analyze and prepare for games, but he also has the ability to get through to players,” Celta Vigo and Spain forward Borja Iglesias, who spent six months on loan at Leverkusen told ESPN. “He has huge charisma … Above all, we connected as people. He helped me to be myself. I think he’s one of the great coaches I’ve had in my career.”

And, perhaps more importantly, his history with Real Madrid means he knows what awaits him when he takes over at the Bernabéu. “He knows the environment, he knows the press, he knows the director [of football], he knows the president,” Benítez said. “So I think he has this great experience that will help in the way that he will manage the team.” — AK

ESPN’s Spain reporter Rodrigo Faez, commentator Derek Rae and German football writer Constantin Eckner contributed to this report