Xabi Alonso may be staying at Bayer Leverkusen for now but the club’s CEO admits there is “no doubt” he will one day manage Real Madrid.
Alonso is the most coveted coach in Europe currently after guiding Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title at the weekend, ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year stranglehold on the German top flight, on the back of a 43-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
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The Spaniard was linked with the impending vacancies at Liverpool and Bayern, as well as Madrid – he represented all three clubs as a player – but opted to remain at the BayArena for at least another season.
Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro accepts, however, that he will move on to bigger things at some stage and wouldn’t be surprised to see him end up at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Caro told Cadena Ser: “I have no doubt that Xabi Alonso will coach Real Madrid at some point. What I’m not sure about is when, but that he will end up at Real Madrid, I have no doubt, as it is also possible that he will train Liverpool or Bayern.”
Carro was instrumental in taking Alonso to Germany and he says he was immediately impressed by the former Spain midfielder.
He added: “When we had the first meeting with him in San Sebastián, we were convinced that our number one priority was to sign him, because of his capacity, potential and undoubtedly because we thought he could reach a very high level.
“To think that we could be league champions in the second season is a stretch, but we knew he was a great coach.”
Alonso has inevitably drawn comparisons with Pep Guardiola after working under him at Bayern and Carro agrees the way they want their teams to play is similar.
“He really likes to have game control,” he said. “And we are also approaching those records that Pep’s team set.”
