“How old is he, 42? Well, I see him at Real Madrid sooner rather than later; he’s a young coach who already commands a lot of respect here in Germany,” said Friedhelm Funkel yesterday, the Kaiserslautern coach who had just been defeated by Xabi’s Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup final. A 1-0 victory that earned the San Sebastián-born coach his first double at the age of 42.
Xabi greeted us around 2:00 a.m. last night as he entered the celebration party for the ‘Aspirin team’s’ title. Accompanied by his wife, Nagore Aramburu, he walked down the ‘red carpet’ of the Berlin Spielbank. His face tired but tremendously happy for what has been an (almost) perfect year with his Bayer: a double (Bundesliga and Pokal); a Europa League final, in the only match lost out of the 53 played this season; and some frightening numbers: 53 matches, 43 wins, nine draws, one defeat (against Atalanta), 144 goals scored, and 41 conceded. Incredible. “What we’ve achieved is monumental,” said Catalan Fernando Carro, the club’s CEO, before joining the celebration party.
Here in Germany, everyone is convinced that Xabi will one day coach one of the big clubs he’s ‘destined’ for, whether it’s Real Madrid, Liverpool, or Bayern, the three teams where he played with enormous success. But that’s not the topic for now. Xabi already announced that he’s staying at Leverkusen for at least one more season, and furthermore, he has a contract signed with the aforementioned Fernando Carro until 2026. Carro, along with Sporting Director Simon Rolfes, was the great visionary who signed him for this Bayer project.
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And Xabi has responded with results and great signs of what is already a great coach. “This title feels different from the ones I won as a player. Now, the credit goes to them, the players, and I just have to prepare them as best as possible from Monday to Sunday,” Xabi replied when asked yesterday at the press conference if this double had a special significance.
Xabi is going on vacation with his homework done… but not completely ‘satisfied’ at one hundred percent. He’s already preparing for the next season, where Leverkusen will no longer be seen as underdogs. A team that everyone will expect more from, and he, a Spanish coach, is one of the best Europe can have in the next decade.
Was für eine Saison – 2 Titel: King @XabiAlonso. 🙌#FCKB04 0:1 | #DFBPokalFinale | #Winnerkusen | #ForOurDream pic.twitter.com/9BJ9eAPa43
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04fussball) May 25, 2024
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