Xabi Alonso Leaves Real Madrid, Replacement Announced
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On Sunday evening, Real Madrid were defeated 3-2 by arch rivals FC Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana over in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
In fairness, the performance was good, but just not good enough, which sort of sums up the 2025/26 season so far.
It has been good, just not good enough. Second in the league, but behind Barcelona. Final of the Supercopa de Espana, but lost to Barcelona. Furthermore, the team is 7th in the UEFA Champions League 'league phase'.
At most clubs, that would be fine. But at Real Madrid, where the standards are sky high, it is not good enough. And with that said, Real Madrid have now confirmed that manager Xabi Alonso has departed the club.
In a statement released on the official website, the club said: "Real Madrid C.F. wishes to announce that, by mutual agreement between the club and Xabi Alonso, it has been decided to bring his time as first team coach to an end.
"Xabi Alonso will always carry the affection and admiration of all Madridistas because he is a Real Madrid legend and has always represented the values of our club. Real Madrid will always be his home.
"We would like to thank Xabi Alonso and all his coaching staff for their hard work and dedication throughout this time, and wish them the best of luck in this new stage of their lives."
In the meantime, the club has also officially confirmed that Alvaro Arbeloa, who was in charge of Castilla, is the new coach of the first team. The former Real Madrid defender played with Alonso at Liverpool, Real Madrid, and for the Spanish national team. There is nothing yet to suggest Arbeloa is just an interim coach.
This does feel very harsh. Although it is true that Alonso had his shortcomings, it felt like the club had made at least a medium-term appointment when he took over from Carlo Ancelotti last summer. After the hugely disappointing 24/25 campaign, this was never going to be an immediate fix.
However, with the way the club runs, you are simply not afforded the grace of learning on the job. You either win or you go home. And unfortunately for Alonso, it has proven to be the latter. There is no doubt that he will have a successful managerial career, just like he did at Bayer Leverkusen before he took over in the Spanish capital.
Onto a new era, much quicker than expected.
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Tom Vinall is a sports writer covering Real Madrid On SI. Previously, he had worked at FanSided as both a contributor and site expert, covering the likes of Spurs and Bayern Munich. He has also previously written for Transfer News Live. Tom was born and lives in Bristol, South West England, and loves to listen to music as well as learning Spanish.
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