Xabi Alonso set to retire from football

Former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso is set for a surprise retirement from football at the end of the season, when his Bayern Munich contract expires.
The 35-year-old, a World Cup and twice European Championships winner with Spain, has not signed a new contract with Bundesliga champions yet, despite fellow veteran Arjen Robben already putting pen to paper.
Alonso joined the Bavarian club in 2014 from Real Madrid and is into his third season with the club, and German daily Bild report it will be the midfielder’s last.

Alonso reportedly met with Bayern’s management towards the end of 2016 and announced his plans to retire at the end of the current campaign to the club’s hierarchy, despite still being a regular in Carlo Ancelotti’s side, starting 13 of their 16 Bundesliga games so far.
Bayern are keen for him to continue and neither party has announced the decision.
He is a fan favourite at the Allianz Arena, having won two Bundesliga titles, the German Cup and the German Super Cup.

The Spaniard made his name at Liverpool after arriving from Real Sociedad and won the Champions League, Uefa Super Cup and the FA Cup as part of a formidable midfield partnership with Steven Gerrard.
Alonso is also fondly remembered in the Spanish capital, where he left Liverpool for in a £30m move and won the La Liga title, the Copa del Rey twice, the Supercopa and helped Real Madrid to La Decima, their 10th Champions League trophy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shanghai Shenua's (Carolos Tevez's new club) stadium caught fire earlier today:

The home stadium of China's Shanghai Shenhua football club caught fire early on Tuesday but there were no casualties and the blaze was extinguished by mid-morning, the city government said. The cause of the blaze at the Hongkou Football Stadium was still being investigated, Shanghai city government said on its official microblog. State news agency Xinhua said the fire, which pictures online showed pouring from one side of the stadium, had not affected the stands or the pitch. The Chinese Super League team has spent heavily to sign high-profile players in recent months. Carlos Tevez signed a two-year deal in December for a reported 84 million euros ($91.22 million) while Senegalese striker Demba Ba, Nigerian forward Obafemi Martins and Colombian midfielder Fredy Guarin also play at the club. Shanghai Shenhua, who appointed Gus Poyet as manager last year, finished fourth last season, 16 points behind champions Guangzhou Evergrande. After being knocked out of Asia...
Read more

Claudio Bravo English Nightmare

Image
Manchester City were the third team to lose 4-0 in the Premier League this weekend but the result was particularly embarrassing for Claudio Bravo. While Swansea City goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski made four saves and was unfortunate to be beaten by two deflected goals against Arsenal and Ben Foster made a commendable eight saves at White Hart Lane against an utterly dominant Tottenham team , Bravo failed to produce a single stop against Everton. He faced four shots on target and conceded four goals. It was yet another afternoon to forget for a goalkeeper who has had enough time to adjust to the Premier League but has simply failed to do so.   Guardiola has stood by his No1 this season but Bravo’s struggles have clearly left City at a disadvantage. The other keepers in the top six clubs all boast above average save success rates, with Cech top of the elite this season with 74%. Bravo is not City’s only problem but if they had a keeper of Cech’s quality – whose save su...
Read more