Spain’s golden platinum diamond generation that won back-to-back-to-back major tournaments is quickly moving to make its mark on the game, now from the manager’s hot seat, with Xabi Alonso reportedly a hot commodity ahead of the summer’s managerial carousel.
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According to German newspaper Bild, Borussia Monchengladbach have offered Alonso, 39, the position to replace current boss Marco Rose, who’s off to Borussia Dortmund in the summer. Alonso has spent the last two years managing Real Sociedad’s B-team after a year working as a youth coach at Real Madrid.
UPDATE: Xabi Alonso has signed a contract extension to remain Real Sociedad’s B-team manager through the summer of 2022, thus putting an end to the speculation over a move to Gladbach.
Having played three (highly successful) seasons at Bayern Munich, Xabi Alonso would find the adaptation to working in the Bundesliga and living in Germany much less of an obstacle than most players-turned-managers — especially first-timers at the senior level — without previous experience in a particular country.
However, Gladbach are reportedly far from the only side in Europe interested in hiring Alonso. According to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, Alonso is also being considered for Real Sociedad’s first-team job along with “many offers on the table” from yet-unnamed clubs.
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Wherever he begins his first-team managerial career, Xabi Alonso seems destined to face high expectations, not so dissimilar to the situation of fellow Spanish legend Xavi, whose name is frequently linked with the not-yet-available Barcelona job — an eventual inevitability at this point — after two years in charge of Qatari side Al-Sadd.
Alonso was a serial winner for some of the biggest clubs in the world, having won the World Cup in 2010 with back-to-back European Championships to bookend, not to mention two UEFA Champions League titles (Liverpool, 2005 and Real Madrid, 2014), one La Liga, three straight Bundesliga titles (2015-2017), a pair of Copas del Rey, an FA Cup (2006) and one DFB-Pokal. He retired at the age of 35 after winning the Bundesliga title under Pep Guardiola in 2017.