Head Coach Confesses He Watched Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen to Learn From
Real Madrid's Xabi Alonso has only been a head coach since 2019, starting his coaching career just two years after retiring as a player. Despite his short time, he has already garnered plenty of admirers for his demeanor and style of play.
One of those is a head coach he will face in just a week. Kazakhstan side FC Kairat will face Real Madrid in the Champions League, and their head coach, Rafael Urazbakhtin, is a big fan of Alonso.
Speaking to EFE (h/t Mundo Deportivo Urazbakhtin confessed that he watched Bayer Leverkusen and learned a lot from Alonso during his time there, even making time to watch his training sessions online.
I confess that I followed Bayer when Xabi worked there. I learned a lot from watching his games. I really liked his work at Leverkusen. I even watched training sessions when I could find them online. I learned a lot as a coach.Rafael Urazbakhtin
Still More to Come From Xabi Alonso
Both coaches are still young and have not been coaching long. Rafael Urazbakhtin started just in 2024. The 46-year-old has already helped guide FC Kairat to Champions League qualification for the first time, making it the second team from Kazakhstan to achieve this feat.
The new head coach revealed that it would be a great honor to meet him and his team play against Alonso's Real Madrid side. Urazbakhtin also believes that there is much more to come from the Spanish coach, having just been in the job for four months.
He worked with great coaches. What he achieved with Bayer was incredible. 51 games unbeaten. That's top-level, of course. It will be a great honor for me to watch him and, of course, to play against him. At first glance, you can see that the demands are different compared to Ancelotti's . But four months isn't four years. The changes are already visible, but Alonso's ideas aren't 100% developed.Rafael Urazbakhtin
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Jordan Merritt is a freelance soccer writer who covers Real Madrid CF On SI. He is an obsessive soccer fan and an Arsenal supporter.
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