Bayer Leverkusen is one of the most important teams in Bundesliga football but also a team that is characterized by having many players that have emerged from their inferiors. At the beginning of this season it was not entirely promising for the black and red team that decided to fire the Swiss coach Gerardo Seoane due to the bad results that had the team fighting in the relegation zone and out of the classification for the round of 16 of the Champions League. A total disappointment but the campaign took a 360 degree turn with the hiring of Xabi Alonso.
The former player, and world champion with Spain in South Africa in 2010, began his career as a coach in the subsidiary team of Real Sociedad and took the bacchante at Leverkusen before the departure of Seoane. He was chosen because of the idea of the game he had, focused on possession of the ball but always thinking about the rival goal, but also because of his experience in German football from his time at Bayern Munich where he was a figure in the seasons in which he wore the shirt of the team that plays at home at the Allianz Arena.
The Spaniard took the team when it was in position number 16 in the Bundesliga (which would force him to play the Playoff to avoid relegation) and took it to the sixth step with a record of 17 wins, 6 draws and 7 losses, which allows him to be only 6 points from a qualifying position for the next edition of the UEFA Champions League. Currently, they are riding a 13-match unbeaten run in all competitions that saw Bayer Leverkusen reach the UEFA Europa League semi-finals (the first time they have reached this stage in an international tournament in 21 years). An unthinkable situation if we take into account the start of the season that the German team had had.
In addition, he has managed to promote young players who can generate a lot of income for the club, such as Moussa Diaby, Jeremie Frimpong or Exequiel Palacios, but he has also managed to restore the confidence of Florian Wirtz, one of the greatest promises in German football, after his injury to knee that did not allow him to go to Qatar 2022.
The 41-year-old coach is doing a spectacular job and some Premier League teams, such as West Ham, are already beginning to see him as a potential candidate to sit on one of their benches in the near future.
