2024-03-29 20:20:13
Xabi Alonso has officially announced that he will remain coach of Bayer Leverkusen. His team only found out about it on the same day.
There was very special news for the Bayer Leverkusen team at Easter. Coach Xabi Alonso has decided to stay with the current Bundesliga leaders and officially announced this at a press conference on Friday. The Leverkusen professionals found out about this shortly beforehand.
“I told my team the decision this morning. It was still a normal day, we had to prepare for the game at the weekend,” revealed Alonso. As “Bild” writes, there was thunderous applause from the team and cheers in the dressing room for the good news.
The players were raving anyway. Alonso is a “genius,” striker Victor Boniface told “Sport Bild,” and everyone knows “how good he was as a player. But he is just as good as a coach.” As a “young coach, Alonso is already pretty complete. His daily demands, the energy that he radiates. It’s contagious,” goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky recently told the “Kicker”, and the Spaniard is also “outstanding” in terms of communication.
Jürgen Klopp reacts reservedly
Last week, Alonso had a good conversation with Simon Rolfes, Fernando Carro and Werner Wenning, “in which I told them I would continue at Bayer Leverkusen. I feel like it’s the right place for me. I have a good feeling as a young coach.” With this, Alonso ended the speculation about his future that had been going on for months. He was repeatedly linked to coaching positions at FC Bayern or Liverpool FC.
Colleague Jürgen Klopp, who will be leaving Liverpool in the summer, reacted reservedly to the news. “He’s doing an incredible job there. Leverkusen have a good team and they’ll probably keep the team together. That’s a possibility and it’s not like that every year. So I understand that he wants to do that. On top of the other things I have “I have nothing to say. That’s it,” said the coach of the Premier League runners-up on Friday at the press conference for the upcoming game on Sunday against Brighton & Hove Albion.
On Saturday, Alonso and Leverkusen will play at home against TSG Hoffenheim (from 3:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). In addition to the championship, the path to the title is clear in the DFB Cup as the only remaining Bundesliga team – and Florian Wirtz and Co. also want to continue to cause a sensation in the Europa League.