Xabi Alonso's Real Madrid returns to La Liga at Anoeta

Xabi Alonso will have a special day today. He will sit on the bench at Anoeta, leading Real Madrid , alongside Athletic Bilbao, on the day the blue and white team's fans most desire victory. Among the crowd will be Periko Alonso, Xabi's father, a Real Sociedad legend and former Barcelona player. "Who do you think your father will go with?" the current Real Madrid manager was asked yesterday at Valdebebas, and he smiled: "Ask him. I hope with us. It will be a special day at home," he replied.

The coach didn't see today's match as much different from the others: "Coming here won't be my first test. Every point can be decisive."

Both responses are typical of Xabi Alonso, a person who is much more rational than sentimental. From a young age, he always had a clear idea of ​​what he wanted and has almost always achieved his goals by taking the shortest route. Although he lived in Barcelona for the first six years of his life, Alonso excelled as a youth player at Antiguoko, one of the best youth academy teams in San Sebastián. From there, Real Madrid signed him, where he played for four seasons.

The Madrid coach He played for Real Madrid, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

In the summer of 2004, just as his move to Real Madrid seemed to be a done deal, Liverpool swooped in, paying 16 million and bringing him to Anfield, where Rafa Benítez reigned supreme. He won the Champions League in Istanbul against Milan on penalties after trailing 3-0.

After five seasons at Liverpool as one of the Reds' most charismatic players, Alonso finally arrived at the Bernabéu in the summer of 2009, a signing that had taken five years and cost 30 million euros, the icing on the cake for a team that had just days earlier unveiled Cristiano, Kaká, and Benzema. None of them got along as well in the locker room with Mourinho, the manager who arrived the following season after Manuel Pellegrini was sacked for failing to win anything.

The last destination A call from Guardiola

Alonso's love affair with Real Madrid would also last five years, spanning Carlo Ancelotti's first season, the most successful, as they won the tenth title in Lisbon twelve years after the ninth. Alonso missed out on the final due to a yellow card in the semifinals against Bayern Munich, then coached by Pep Guardiola. His suit-clad run down the sidelines to celebrate Ramos' goal is a classic on the Bernabéu scoreboards.

The split with Madrid also proved to be unexpected. That same summer, and to the club's surprise, the Tolosa native reached an agreement with Bayern Munich, convinced after a call from Guardiola that he wanted him for his project. Alonso justified this by saying, "I needed other challenges." Bayern paid 10 million. He played his final three years there, winning all three Bundesliga titles, but was unable to win another Bundesliga title.

The trajectory on the bench Three years in Leverkusen

His coaching career began in 2018 at Valdebebas in the U14 A team, where he was welcomed with open arms. However, the following season, he returned to Sanse, Real's reserve team, to take charge of Sanse. He surely understood that it was the ideal stepping stone to promotion to the first team. However, that same year, he was taken over by Imanol Alguacil, who in the following seasons won a Cup and qualified the club for European Championships five years in a row.

Alonso decided to try his luck again in Germany. He chose Bayer Leverkusen, a club with a reputation for being jinxed and losing, where he stayed for three years and won everything in the second, ending Bayern Munich's ten-year dominance.

His success at Bayern has opened the doors of the Bernabéu once again, where he has been received nothing short of the prodigal son. That's more or less what's expected at Anoeta these days. This is Alonso's great merit: ambitious, intelligent, and elegant, with clear ideas, and wherever he goes, he's always "one of us."