It’s not often you see a manager reject a move to one of the biggest football clubs in the world, especially when they are new to management and they have links to the club. from their playing days.

But that is exactly what Xabi Alonso did, twice.

Both Liverpool and Bayern Munich, two of Europe’s football giants who Alonso played for, are looking for new managers and Alonso was at the top of both of their lists. It looked like there was a battle for the Spaniard but in the end Alonso turned down both offers which was a surprise to many.

Real Madrid have also shown an interest in Alonso to make that a third giant of football that he has played for, but Alonso has said he will be staying at his current club Bayer Leverkusen for at least another season. Alonso is high on these clubs’ wanted lists because of his results at Leverkusen this season which sees them unbeaten at the top of the league.

It’s been an amazing season and this weekend they were crowned champions for the first time in their history, with 5 games to play.

Alonso said: “At the moment it feels right to be here. I’m really happy. The club is great. The fans are great. The players are unbelievable, so many reasons.”

What I like most is that his decision making as a manager is exactly how he played the game. He stayed calm and kept his composure during the games as a player, no matter what happened. This made him very difficult to play against, just like his team at the moment.

He looks like he wants to build his path and go on his journey at his own pace, and doesn’t let anything change his objective of getting where he wants to be.

As a player Alonso won the World Cup, Euros, Champions League and several La Liga and Bundesliga titles, and now he’s close to his first as a manager. He is one of those intelligent players that seems to have made the transition to management seamlessly, like Zidane and Pep Guardiola did. He has a long way to go before he can be mentioned in the same breath as those as a manager but he couldn’t have got off to much of a better start. #mmlove