Some things are simply written in the stars; Xabi Alonso managing Real Madrid was one of them.
After a sensational five-year spell that saw him make 236 appearances, win the LaLiga title, Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España, and end a 12-year drought for the club’s elusive 10th UEFA Champions League title, Alonso made the move to Bavarian giants Bayern Munich in 2014, where he won three Bundesliga titles in three years before hanging up his boots.
Alonso then returned to his boyhood club and started
coaching Real Sociedad’s B team between 2019 and 2022 before making the move to German club Bayer Leverkusen. He took charge of a side that was hovering above the relegation zone after a dreadful opening weeks, and quickly injected them with new life, with Die Werkself finishing sixth and reaching the Europa League semifinals. But nobody could have imagined what was right around the corner.
Bayer Leverkusen took world football by storm in 2023/24 by ending a 31-year trophy drought and claiming their second DFB-Pokal title as well as a maiden Bundesliga title, and they came within inches of securing an unbeaten treble season, only to lose 3-0 to Atalanta in the Europa League Final. All signs pointed to Alonso riding off into the sunset and returning to his former club Liverpool, who needed someone to step into Jürgen Klopp’s lofty shoes. Instead, he decided to stay put at the BayArena for another season, knowing that his dream was not too far away from becoming reality. It hung over both Leverkusen and Real’s campaigns like a storm cloud, with both sides failing to win any major silverware and relinquishing their titles to Bayern and Barcelona, and eventually, it came to fruition.
Alonso replaced Carlo Ancelotti as Real’s new manager following the completion of the LaLiga season, but rather than being given a full preseason to put his ideas into practice, he was forced to step up and take charge after less than a month, with Real drawing to Al-Hilal in their FIFA Club World Cup opener before winning their next four, culminating in a 4-0 defeat to PSG in the semifinal.
Since then, however, it’s been full steam for a new-look Real Madrid side that is without club icons like Luka Modrić and Lucas Vázquez but is relishing its fresh new blood with the likes of Franco Mastantuono, Álvaro Carreras and Dean Huijsen — all of whom are making an immediate impact and elevating the overall level of the squad.
After kicking off the 2025/26 season with seven wins in a row, Real were sent back down to Earth after losing 5-2 to crosstown rivals Atlético Madrid. But they would bounce back in stellar fashion with a 5-0 thrashing of Kairat Almaty. And despite dealing with a historically arduous round trip to Kazakhstan, Real showed no signs of fatigue as they took care of business with a 3-1 home win against one of LaLiga’s premier opponents in Villarreal. This, combined with Barcelona’s 4-1 defeat at Sevilla, would see Real climb to the top of the table going into the October international break. It means that, if they can win at Getafe on Sunday, Real will be in first place heading into El Clásico.
“Xabi Alonso is a superstar, and for him to come in and pick up the reins and immediately produce the effects that he’s had, it’s a testament to the fact that he’s a real one,” stated legendary sports broadcaster James Richardson. “They are Real Madrid, they are regularly the team that does the impossible, and they seem to regard that almost as their birthright. With Alonso in charge, I think they are going to be even better than they were under Ancelotti.”
“They’re currently two points clear of Barca, so they don’t really need advice from me. I think if there are two issues that people would point to, one is obviously the fact that they’ve got a number of players who like to be in the same position. Kylian Mbappé’s superb form seems to have moved him into the priority there, and then you’ve also got Vinícius and Rodrygo. We’ll see how that works out, and then all the other players that they are forever acquiring who can play in those roles like Brahim Díaz. So, yeah, there is a slight question mark about how they make that all work up front, but the biggest question is the number of injuries they’ve picked up at the back, and I guess that’s just down to changes in their training methods.”
After a fairly hospitable opening start to his time in charge, Xabi Alonso looks set to enter the most challenging period of his debut campaign at Real Madrid. Real will host Juventus, Barcelona and Valencia before traveling to Liverpool, Rayo Vallecano, Elche, Olympiacos and Girona, followed by home matches vs. Celta de Vigo and Manchester City. But before that, they’ll be looking to make it eight wins on the bounce against a Getafe side that, having won their first two matches of the campaign, have since lost three, drawn twice, and won once.
