HONED FOR COACHING

After playing under some of the finest managers of the last 20 years, Xabi Alonso is equipped to succeed as a coach

- Nick Bidwell

Could Xabi Alonso, so impressive as a rookie coach at Bayer Leverkusen last term, be set for a coaching career at the very top of the game?

Certainly Bayern Munich, one of his former clubs, would be interested. When Alonso strutted his stuff for the Bavarians in the final act (2014-17) of a magnificent playing career, the suits at the Allianz Arena often went out of their way to sing the praises of the Basque midfield traffic cop, commending him for his leadership qualities, tactical awareness and consummate ability to pull the strings in the middle of the park. Whether hinted at or bluntly on the record, the word from the Bayern boardroom was that they held Alonso's football IQ in the highest regard and would dearly love to employ him as a coach one day.

"He's the best central midfielder we've had in recent years," said the thenBayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in an interview with Kicker magazine in April 2019. "He wasn't the quickest, but of all the players I've ever seen in our midfield, he was the most intelligent and the best strategically. He was a wonderful player, who could speak four languages, including German. He was a real personality. He's someone I'd like to see back at Bayern as a coach. He's now in Spain learning his coaching trade. My opinion is that we must make an effort to bring him back to Bayern at some point".

Some four years later, Rummenigge's effusive appraisal is now common currency in the corridors of power of many top European sides, particularly those others that he served with such distinction as a player: Real Sociedad, Liverpool and Real Madrid. If any of them were already considering Alonso as a manager for the future, then their interest would have certainly been piqued by his exceptional work as a lifesaver at Leverkusen in 2022-23, his first senior coaching job.