“Greetings champions”: Xabi Alonso’s message with Exe Palacios at the celebrations of Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga champion

A beer in hand and a wink at the World Cup in Qatar. Exequiel Palacios AND Xabi Alonso They greeted the Argentine fans via a live broadcast on Instagram, in the center of the club’s dressing room. Bayer Leverkusenminutes after becoming Bundesliga champions for the first time, ending the hegemony of Bayern Munich, who had won the last 11 German league titles.

“Pala” was walking around with his cell phone until he came across the Spanish coach, who didn’t hide the fact that he was holding a bottle of beer in his left hand. “Here we are with the coach, greetings to all the Argentine people”asked the midfielder, who came on for the final 15 minutes of the win against Werder Bremen but was enough to provide an assist.

“Greetings champions, Argentina. Come on, damn it”launched the Spanish coach, but who in his career as a footballer has had several teammates from the Albiceleste.

Xabi Alonso, the architect of the Leverkusen champion

The architect of the team that broke the historic drought is Xabi Alonso, one of the most sought-after coaches in the world these days. The Basque, who until then had only coached Real Madrid’s under-14s and Real Sociedad’s reserve team, took charge of the Rossoneri team from 5 October 2022, replacing the Swiss Gerardo Seoane. At the time, Bayer were second last in the Bundesliga and had been eliminated from the German Cup by third-division Elversberg. In less than eight months, the former Spanish national team player took the team from 19th to sixth place, thus qualifying for the Europa League.

This season the team’s performances and results have been superlative. This made some European giants such as Real Madrid and Liverpool take an interest in Alonso (they had attempted him in March to replace Jürgen Klopp starting in July). But the DT has already warned that he will stay. “It doesn’t seem like the right time to leave. After a year we are building a team, we are building a great spirit here. “I’m committed and I’m having a lot of fun,” he justified.