Xabi Alonso · Chelsea XI

Bayer Leverkusen: 87W · 34D · 19L2022–2025
Real Madrid: 24W · 4D · 6L2025–2026
Chelsea: 4W · 1D · 1L2026–

His role

The manager, notably, not the head coach. Alonso is the first permanent appointment under the new ownership to be given that title. His predecessors were asked to coach a squad built above them by the sporting directors; Alonso has a meaningful voice in recruitment and departures as well as tactics, so his authority reaches beyond the training pitch. It is a quiet admission that the original model gave young coaches responsibility for results without enough control over the squad. Old Chelsea was built around imposing managers who could command a room. With Alonso, the owners are trying to restore some of that weight without tearing up the modern recruitment structure.

His story

01
Hot take
He is the real deal
Five permanent appointments in four years and this is the first one who turned up with nothing left to prove. He has won the Champions League as a player at two different clubs, a World Cup, two European Championships and league titles in three countries, then went into management and made a club that had never won anything the best team in Germany. Chelsea have hired plenty of coaches. This is the first time they have hired someone the players were already in awe of.
02
Record
He made Leverkusen invincible
In 61 seasons nobody had gone a whole Bundesliga campaign without losing. In 2023-24 his Leverkusen won 28 and drew 6 of 34, finished on 90 points, and took the first league title in the club's history off Bayern Munich. They won the cup as well for the double. The unbeaten run reached 51 games in all competitions, a European record, and the only defeat in 53 matches came in the Europa League final. People had been calling them Neverkusen for forty years. Nobody calls them that now.
03
Drama
He scored in the Miracle of Istanbul
First season in England, three down to Milan at half time in a Champions League final. Liverpool clawed it to 3-2 and won a penalty. Alonso took it, Dida saved it, and he battered the rebound into the roof of the net for 3-3. Liverpool won the shootout. The reason he was available for that final at all is that he took his booking in the semi instead, in a goalless draw at Stamford Bridge, and watched the second leg against Chelsea from the stands.
04
Off the pitch
He has won the league in three countries
La Liga with Real Madrid, three Bundesligas in a row with Bayern Munich, and then the Bundesliga again from the other side of the touchline with Leverkusen. Put the 2005 and 2014 Champions Leagues next to a World Cup and two European Championships and there is not a great deal left in the game he has not already held.