Florentino Perez signs Mourinho's most loyal disciple to bring down Flick's Barça

BarcelonaXabi Alonso returns to Real Madrid to be the antidote to Hansi Flick. The Basque player returns to a club where he had been under José Mourinho to put a spoke in the wheel of Guardiola's Barça, a period in which he left behind his reputation as a football intellectual, as he dealt out blows when needed. In recent years, Alonso has regained his reputation as a person who takes care of the game thanks to his good work on the Bayer Leverkusen bench, where he was able to halt Bayern's winning streak in the 2023/24 season without losing a single league game.

His fate could have been different, as he had fond memories of Barcelona and Catalonia as a child. His father, Periko, was one of the most beloved players in the history of Real Sociedad, but in the 1980s he shone at Barça. In fact, Xabi remembers how he fell down the stands at the Nova Creu Alta in Sabadell as a child, as his father also played for the Harlequins. His early years were spent in Catalonia, until he returned to San Sebastián in the early 1990s, where he would begin playing football until making his debut with Real Sociedad's first team after a loan spell with Eibar.

An aggressive midfielder with vision, he contributed greatly to Real Sociedad's runners-up finish in La Liga under French coach Raynald Denoueix. At that time, he was on the verge of signing for Barça, who wanted him at La Masia. But he was destined not to follow in his father's footsteps.

First, he would go to Liverpool, where he would become one of the best players in the world under Rafa Benítez, with whom he would win the Champions League. In fact, he would score in the famous final against Milan, when the English team overturned a 3-0 deficit, in 2005. In 2009, Florentino Pérez would secure his signing. Dressed in white, he won many titles, but he also fell out with a good portion of the Barcelona fans in the Spanish national team, with whom he would win the 2010 World Cup as a starter in the final.

At Madrid, Alonso starred in some great duels with Guardiola's Barça, and he gradually took on an increasingly defensive role, as would become clear in the famous 2011 Copa del Rey final at Mestalla. That final would mark a turning point in his relationship with the Barça players. In the Barça dressing room, he and Arbeloa would become two of the players with the worst reputations for their toughness and aggressiveness, as would be seen in Clásicos where he even put his hands in Messi's face.

Xabi Alonso and Pep Guardiola: from antidote to star pupil

On August 29, 2014, Real Madrid officially announced the midfielder's transfer to Bayern Munich, after five years in which he had won a Champions League, a La Liga title, and two Cups. However, his time in Madrid wasn't finalized until this week because a case with the tax authorities was opened. The very week that his return to Madrid will be made official, the National Court ruled in favor of the former player in the dispute he had with the Tax Agency claiming €288,507.58 for failing to pay personal income tax on payments his agent received in 2012 from Real Madrid. The case was related to a Real Madrid accounting transaction: the club directly paid €354,000 to Real Madrid. IDUB Sports Services, a company linked to Alonso's agent based in Madeira.

Alonso arrived at Bayern at 32 to be managed by Guardiola, so you ended up working with two antagonistic managers: the one from Santpedor and the Portuguese. He learned from both. In Germany he would win the league, but not the Champions League.

As a manager, his first job was with Real Sociedad's reserve team, before making the jump to Bayer. He arrived at the aspirin club when they were at risk of relegation to the Second Division, and in less than two years he made them league and Cup champions. A success at a club that in its entire history had only won one Cup and one UEFA Cup. In fact, in the same 2023/24 season they reached the Europa League final, coming within a whisker of winning three titles, but lost to Atalanta. Alonso admits that he learned a lot from Pep Guardiola when he worked with him at Bayern. He liked to play with a kind of 3-2-2-3, with long-range full-backs like the former Barça player Grimaldo, wingers who look to attack through the middle, and two hard-working midfielders with vision.

At Leverkusen, he has entrusted the team to two midfielders in Xhaka and Wirtz, which allowed him to move the ball quickly, seeking a balance between being an electric team and having a lot of possession. It remains to be seen how he adapts to a Real Madrid squad where many players don't help out defensively or after losing the ball. If he will have to come to an understanding with Florentino in the box, in the locker room he will have to get more players working who haven't always wanted to. Alonso returns to a Madrid side where Florentino Pérez doesn't usually get along with coaches who want to control everything, like himself. But after being overwhelmed by Barça, Florentino wants Xabi Alonso to do what Mourinho did to him a few years ago.