Real Madrid News
Xabi Alonso explains how Cristiano Ronaldo made his job easier at Real Madrid
After enjoying a wonderful career in Europe, Xabi Alonso has enjoyed a decent start to his managerial stint at Bayer Leverkusen. He has won seven of his first 12 Bundesliga matches in charge, helping Leverkusen somehow keep up with the rest of the pack in the race for the top four places.
In a special appearance for the Coaches’ Voice, Alonso explained the success of his playing career that inspired him to take up a coaching career. During the show, he made a special mention of Cristiano Ronaldo and how easy it was to play with the Portuguese international.
“Cristiano made everything very easy. I get the ball, I find him and he used to do his individual action to score,” Alonso said.
Formerly of Liverpool, Xavi Alonso played with Ronaldo at Real Madrid from 2009 to 2014. Incidentally, both players had joined the Spanish giants in the same window, along with two other footballing superstars in Karim Benzema and Kaka.
While Kaka was not as successful, the likes of Alonso and Ronaldo played a key role in Real Madrid’s success, with the duo even winning the Champions League together in 2014, under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti.
Alonso eventually left Real Madrid in the summer of 2014, joining Bayern Munich in a deal worth €9 million. He played for the Bavarians for three years, featuring in 117 competitive matches before hanging up his boots in 2017.
Interestingly, Alonso began his coaching prospects with a stint at Real Madrid youth from 2018 to 2019. And given his early success at Bayer Leverkusen, it will not come as a surprise to see him being linked with the Real Madrid first-team job in the near future, especially with Carlo Ancelotti being subjected to a move to Brazil national team.
It is astounding that despite being the biggest club in Spain, Real Madrid do not have many Spanish players to show for it.
Los Blancos do indeed boast of a special diversity in the dressing room, but their lack of locally trained players could pose problems according to MARCA.
The Spanish outlet confirms that UEFA does not mandate the inclusion of any minimum number of locally grown players for a club. However, the Spanish federation stipulates that a club in Spain must boast of at least eight players who meet a specific set of conditions.
Of the aforementioned eight candidates, there must be at least four players who have spent three seasons or 36 months at the club between the ages of 15 and 21.
Currently, only Nacho Fernandez, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Federico Valverde, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Mariano make up the required number on that front.
The problem, however, arises with the condition for the other four players in the list of eight. RFEF stipulates that the second set of four players must have completed at least 36 months in teams attached to the federation of Spain between the ages of 15 and 21.
Only Jesus Vallejo, Alvaro Odriozola, Marco Asensio and Dani Ceballos tick the aforementioned box. However, all four players have uncertain futures at the club and are well-placed to depart in the summer.
There are thus big decisions to be taken over the transfer strategy for June. Real Madrid can work ways to ship all four players out, it would require the re-integration of players like Sergio Arribas, Miguel Gutierrez or Fran Garcia to ensure the fulfilment of the criteria.
With both Vallejo and Odriozola seemingly frozen out of Ancelotti’s plans, their departures from Santiago Bernabeu appear inevitable. Thus, the management could be forced to renew one of Asensio or Ceballos come June.
