Xabi Alonso Announces His Post-Retirement Plans

Posted Thursday, September 28, 2017 by thesportbible.com

Xabi Alonso, the suavest man in football, has announced his post-retirement plans in what he calls the "next step in the career".

The 35-year old called time on his glittering career earlier this year, celebrating his retirement with a third and final Bundesliga title win with Bayern Munich. And having regularly been tipped as someone who has the potential to become a manager in the game, he has now outlined his intentions to do so.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder won a total of 17 trophies at club and international level, and along with his colleague Philipp Lahm, former captain of Bayern and Germany, said goodbye to the Allianz Arena as Bayern celebrated another German top flight title win.

Alonso, a two-time Champions League winner, was offered an immediate coaching position at Bayern Munich, with Carlo Ancelotti revealing that he offered the assistant manager's vacancy to both Alonso and Lahm, who also hung up his boots, but both declined and say former France international Willy Sagnol was instated.

And though that opportunity may have come too soon for the former Spain international, clearly he has a desire to go into coaching - as evidenced in the brief video above.

The news doesn't exactly come as a surprise given that Alonso has been renowned for being one of the most intelligent footballers of our generation, and already has the backing of his former boss Pep Guardiola to succeed in management.

Speaking back at a press conference back in March, Guardiola said:

"I was so lucky to have him in Munich. He's one of the best midfielders I've seen in my life.

"He understands the game. I love to work with these kind of people." He'll come back as a manager - whenever he wants. And he'll be good."

It's unclear at this point, whom Alonso will take his first steps into management with, but one thing we know for sure is that he's going to look like a million dollars on the touchline, the absolute bloke.