FC Barcelona is dreaming of appointing Xabi Alonso as its next head coach, according to SPORT.
The Blaugrana is currently without a successor lined up to replace club legend Xavi Hernandez in the dugout, after Alonso’s former Spain national team colleague announced he will step down from the high pressure role on June 30 a fortnight ago.
President Joan Laporta is a great admirer of the German school of managers and coaches including Jurgen Klopp, Hansi Flick, Thomas Tuchel, Julen Nagelsmann and Joachim Low have all been linked to taking the Camp Nou – or Montjuic Stadium – hotseat at one point or another since he re-assumed the presidency in March 2021.
Yet there is another name, although not a local, currently lighting up the Bundesliga that is “very much” liked by the Barca board in Xabi Alonso.
Like Barca’s bitter rivals Real Madrid, Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen side currently leads the German top flight by five points after thrashing usual champions Bayern Munich 3-0 at the weekend.
It is likely that this season, which could end with Leverkusen losing its “Neverkusen” moniker and becoming kings of Germany for the first time, is Alonso’s last at the BayArena and Europe’s top clubs are alert to this.
Klopp has been linked to Barca recently because he, like akin to Xavi, will leave Anfield after nine years in the summer.
Because of his history with the Reds, Alonso could walk into the job on Merseyside. But the same could be said about Real Madrid where he spent half a decade in the mid-to-late 2000s after the same amount of time at Liverpool.
Beyond admiring Alonso’s style of play, Barca could also deal Madrid a double blow by snapping him up first as a manager.
With Ancelotti doing a fine job with the 14-time Champions League winners, Los Blancos don’t need a change of tactician anytime soon whereas Liverpool and Barca do.
Some have suggested that the mere fact of Alonso having previously worn the Madrid shirt means he should be thrown out as a potential hire, but his father Periko donned Blaugrana in the 1980s meaning his son also spent part of his childhood in Catalonia.
As an ex-Bayern star too, it isn’t ruled out that Alonso could stay in Germany and head to the Allianz Arena before taking the leap to either Spain or England.
