Real Madrid A 180 degree turn, a winning streak and a squeezed core
The model of success of the Royal Society Of those trips by taxi from Oyarzabal to this dressing room with six university students
Zubieta and Valdebebas
.
Real Sociedad and Real Madrid
. As a player, and with the permission of
Liverpool
,
Xabi Alonso's
career
(Tolosa, 1981) had
its two key moments
in the
Basque Country
and in the capital of Spain: the beginning and the summit. The
2003
league runner-up
with the
txuri-urdin
. His first
League
and the
Tenth
of 2014 with the Madridistas. A decade of evolution in which he went from being on loan at
Eibar
to winning the
Champions League
with Liverpool, from being a promise to lift the
2010 World Cup
as a starter
.
Years after that and after
four years
have passed
since his retirement
, Tonight's Real Sociedad-Real Madrid will find Xabi in the stands of the
Reale Arena
, with his mind set on the game of the
Basque subsidiary
that he will have to lead this Sunday.
In his view on the lawn of San Sebastián, a duel between two of his possible destinations in the coming years.
"
He is already perfectly prepared for the elite,
" says
Roberto Olabe
, director of football for
Real Sociedad
, to EL MUNDO
.
Same class as Raúl, Xavi and Valdés
And it is that after a brief passage through the
infantile A
of Madrid, the coach Alonso has returned to settle his life in
San Sebastián
. He hung up his boots and had his first mini-experience in Valdebebas while he was getting his license with
Raúl González, Xavi Hernández or Víctor Valdés
, but as soon as he finished he flew to
Zubieta
. His people were waiting for him so that, just as he did as a footballer, he could begin his first practical classes on the pitch of the Real sports city. "It was the
logical meeting point,
" explains Olabe. "It was his own decision. I have known Xabi for many years and there are things that continue to surprise me. Having been all that he has been as a player,
He had the humility to recognize that he needed a
timing
, a learning time. Being world champion has not empowered him to say 'I'm ready to be something' ”.
That apprenticeship that began in the
summer of 2019
today reaches
two and a half years
of maturity, with a
historic promotion to the Second Division in
between and a long list of homegrown players who have already debuted with the first team led by
Imanol Alguacil
. That, and no other, is the great objective of the Real and Xabi's main duty in Zubieta. “
El Sanse is the jewel in the club's crown, the place of the final transition,
and Xabi has been generous in understanding that to have some autonomy he needs to be part of the development process. We need his
leadership
, his
capacity for
feedback
, understanding of the game, his communication ... What Xabi gives us is the
art of convincing
kids that they are ready and that it is not so much about winning but about how to win.
"It has had an absolute evolution"
Zubieta is one of the best places for a footballer to develop.
The numbers say it:
27 of the players
who have been called up this year with the first team come from the quarry.
And for a coach?
«Xabi has had an absolute evolution and his adaptation to Zubieta has been surprising.
We have very high demands
, not with the results, but with the methodology, the tasks, the planning ... It is not easy and he has done it ».
But, what
idea of game
does Xabi have? “We have a game model and we fight a lot for it. Passing, transition and mastery of space are our three pillars ", Olabe enumerates before giving Alonso some freedom:" If the coach understands this line of work, then we give him the brush to give it its shape. The Sanse is your test bed.
You need control of the game and a stable team
. What he has been as a player ", summarizes Olabe, who after three seasons watching Alonso in the subsidiary assumes that he will make the leap"
when he decides
. " «I don't know if it will be at La Real or somewhere else. He was already a coach when he played and it will be what he chooses.
He had the humility to say that he did not want to skip stages
, who wanted to evolve, and when he feels ready he will be a coach ».
Meanwhile, in Valdebebas they do not lose sight of one of their most important players of the last decade, in a situation similar to that experienced with
Raúl
, who directs
Castilla
in the First RFEF and already sounded for the Bernabéu bench when he left
Zidane
.
"If at the time he had had to bet on a player who was going to be a coach, it
would have been Xabi, without a doubt,
" reflected
Carlo Ancelotti
about his former midfielder.
"One who has played in the midfield has more advantage on the bench," added
Carletto
.
«The midfielder has to be physical, he has to have quality, tactics, see the game well ... AND
Xabi Alonso was one of the greatest midfielders I have ever had
, very intelligent, with a fantastic foot and
extraordinary professionalism
».
The dialogue between the now Basque coach and the Madrid manager is excellent and it is assumed, as in Zubieta, that
fate will cross them
at some point in their lives.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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