Real Madrid confirm appointment of Xabi Alonso

Real Madrid have confirmed the appointment of Xabi Alonso on a three-year deal.

In his first senior managerial role, Alonso guided Bayer Leverkusen to a first-ever Bundesliga title and a first DFB Pokal since 1993, achieving both without losing a game.

But for an inspired Atalanta performance in the Europa League final, Leverkusen would have completed an unprecedented unbeaten treble.

Naturally, such an achievement saw Alonso catapulted up many top clubs’ managerial wish lists, with reports suggesting he was going to leave last summer, with Liverpool looking for a new manager.

The thinking was that, in rejecting Liverpool, Alonso was holding out for the Real Madrid job with Carlo Ancelotti set to see out one more season before departing, as has turned out to be the case.

Real’s early exit from the UEFA Champions League accelerated Ancelotti’s departure, while Alonso decided to see the campaign out with Leverkusen while declaring he would be departing the Bundesliga outfit in the summer.

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Alonso spent five years at the Bernabeu as a player, winning La Liga and the UEFA Champions League, and he will bid to follow Zinedine Zidane in winning both with Real as a player and manager.

It remains to be seen whether Alonso will attempt to implement his successful 3-4-2-1 formation that he’s used to great effect at Leverkusen or adapt his approach to something more suitable to Real’s existing players.

Los Blancos have already assembled some of the new building blocks for Alonso to work with as Trent Alexander-Arnold is on the verge of completing a free transfer from Liverpool, while highly-rated central defender Dean Huijsen is set to join the club from Bournemouth in a £50m deal.

Liam Williams

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