LEVERKUSEN, Germany — Xabi Alonso has grown accustomed to being applauded by all sides of the BayArena and, even after a humbling 5-0 aggregate UEFA Champions League elimination at the hands of rivals Bayern Munich, the Bayer Leverkusen coach was treated like a hero by the home supporters.
That’s what happens when you transform a club’s history by turning them into winners. Alonso not only delivered Leverkusen’s first Bundesliga title last season, he did it without losing a single league game. But for a shock defeat against Atalanta in the UEFA Europa League final in Dublin, Alonso’s Leverkusen, who also won the German Cup, would have achieved a remarkable — and unprecedented — unbeaten treble.
What perhaps made Alonso’s triumph even more memorable, and secured his status as a Leverkusen legend, was his decision to commit his future to the team when most emerging coaches would have taken the opportunity to capitalise on their success with a big move to a superpower club. But a year on, with Bayer out of the Champions League and almost certain to lose their Bundesliga crown to Bayern, Alonso has another big decision to make about his future.
This time last season, Liverpool and Bayern were both looking for a new head coach and Alonso, who played with distinction for both, could have taken his pick of either had he wanted to do so. Instead, the 43-year-old made it clear that he would stay at Leverkusen for another year at least. Loyalty and patience were the two big factors in Alonso’s decision to stay — he was in no rush to make a leap elsewhere at such a young age, with Leverkusen ready to take on the challenge of trying to win the Champions League.
Now, however, honouring the final 12 months of his contract might be a harder choice for Alonso to make.
His team has failed to match last season’s incredible heights — which is no surprise — and it seems increasingly likely that Bayer’s star player, Florian Wirtz, will move on this summer due to strong interest from Bayern and a number of leading Premier League clubs.
Wirtz missed Tuesday’s 2-0 second-leg defeat, inflicted by second-half goals by Harry Kane and Alphonso Davies, due to an ankle ligament injury sustained in a Bundesliga loss against Werder Bremen at the weekend. But, even with the 21-year-old forward present, Leverkusen would still have had a mountain to climb against Bayern.
That challenge, which Leverkusen failed to meet, faces Alonso on a much bigger scale on the domestic front. After winning nothing last season, Bayern are back and threatening to dominate the Bundesliga again, so how does Alonso look ahead to the future?
“We have had a great development with this team to get to this level,” Alonso said after Tuesday’s loss. “To get to the next level is not easy. Bayern is a different level in this competition. We just have to continue our development now.”
So does Alonso stick around for another year, continue Leverkusen’s evolution — probably without Wirtz — and hope for the best? Or has his fairytale ride at the BayArena come to a natural conclusion?
“It’s the Champions League, its over for us now, so we can only congratulate Bayern Munich,” Alonso said. “Now we have to focus on Bundesliga and the German Cup. We have a great chance to win a trophy again in the cup, so we have to be ready and realistic about what we have done. We did good things, but not enough to make the quarterfinals.”
If this does prove to be the end of the Leverkusen road for Alonso, he will find a different landscape in front of him in terms of potential options than last year, and that might yet be Leverkusen’s best hope of persuading him to stay on.
The Liverpool job is no longer an option with Arne Slot on course to win the Premier League title in his first year at Anfield, while Bayern would be unlikely to part with Vincent Kompany if he delivers the Bundesliga title. Real Madrid, another of Alonso’s former clubs, has always seemed the dream destination for the former Spain midfielder, but right now, Carlo Ancelotti is the master of all he surveys at the Bernabeu. That might change if he fails to win yet another Champions League title this season, and Real are always unpredictable, but it would be a high-risk strategy for Alonso to gamble on a move to Madrid this summer.
There are no other plausible options in LaLiga, Luis Enrique is building an exciting young team at Paris Saint-Germain, and it is difficult to make a convincing for Alonso that a move to a leading club in Italy would be the right one for his career trajectory.
That leaves the Premier League, but with Liverpool off the table and Manchester City securing Pep Guardiola to a contract until 2027, only Arsenal would seem a good fit and, right now, Mikel Arteta is in a strong position at the Emirates. But if the Gunners fail to win a trophy this season, Arteta’s position may not be quite so secure in a year’s time and by the end of the 2025-26 season, Ancelotti’s contract will be up at Real.
So, sticking with Leverkusen for one more season and then making his big move might be the sensible choice. But he surprised everyone by pledging his future to Leverkusen last season, so Alonso could catch us all out again by deciding to go instead.
In the end, is there anything else Alonso can realistically achieve at Leverkusen? That might be the deciding factor in whatever he chooses to do next.
