Xabi Alonso is the current favourite to replace Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool, with José Mourinho having previously predicted the Spaniard would become a top manager.
José Mourinho’s prediction about Xabi Alonso becoming a top manager is coming true. Five years ago, Mourinho saw potential in the former Liverpool midfielder.
Alonso started his coaching journey with Real Madrid’s under-14s team in 2018 while earning his UEFA badges. He then moved to manage Real Sociedad’s B team and led them to promotion from the third tier.
In October 2022, he took over Bayer Leverkusen when they were in the relegation zone and guided them to a sixth-place finish. Now, they’re competing for the Bundesliga title without losing a single league match this season.
Back in 2019, Mourinho told Top Eleven: “With Xabi Alonso, you always saw there was a manager there. Similarly to me, his father was a player. He grew up with a father who was a player then a manager, and then he became a player, of course much better than I was.
His knowledge of the game was very high and then he played in Spain, England and Germany and was coached by [Pep] Guardiola at Bayern, by myself in Real Madrid, by [Carlo] Ancelotti in Real Madrid and by [Rafa] Benítez in Liverpool. So if you put all that together, then I would say that Xabi has the conditions to be a very good coach.”
Alonso and Mourinho clashed in the semi-finals of last season’s Europa League, with AS Roma just managing to beat Leverkusen 1-0 over two legs. Alonso had nothing but praise for his former Real Madrid boss ahead of their match, particularly noting Mourinho’s excellent communication skills.
