{"id":412735,"date":"2026-01-14T17:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412735\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:10:07","slug":"barcelonas-flick-backs-xabi-alonso-to-land-a-new-role-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412735\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona’s Flick backs Xabi Alonso to land a new role quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barc<\/a>elona<\/a> coach Hansi Flick on Wednesday said Xabi Alonso will land a new job quickly, backing the outgoing Real Madrid<\/a> coach to have a great career in management.<\/p>\n

Alonso left his role as Madrid boss after just 233 days in charge on Monday following a 3-2 loss <\/a>to Flick’s Bar\u00e7a in the Spanish Supercopa final last weekend.<\/p>\n

After leading Bayer Leverkusen<\/a> to an unexpected Bundesliga<\/a> title in 2024, Alonso leaves Madrid with a record of 24 wins from his 34 matches in charge, during which time he lost just six games.<\/p>\n

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“This is football,” Flick said in a news conference on Wednesday when asked about Alonso being replaced by \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa earlier this week.<\/p>\n

“I have a really good relationship with Xabi. We met in Leverkusen when I was the national coach and I stayed in contract.<\/p>\n

“He’s a fantastic coach, but it’s football, we have to accept these things. He will get a new, next big project for him and also his team.<\/p>\n

“As coaches, we have to continue, think about what we can do better, but he’s a fantastic coach and he has a great future ahead of him.”<\/p>\n

Having built that friendship when Flick was Germany<\/a> boss, the two became rivals last summer when Alonso took over from Carlo Ancelotti at Madrid.<\/p>\n

In the first of two meetings between the pair, Alonso’s Madrid prevailed 2-1 in the LaLiga<\/a> Cl\u00e1sico in October, with Flick’s Bar\u00e7a team gaining revenge in the Supercopa last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Flick was speaking ahead of Thursday’s trip to Segunda Divisi\u00f3n leaders Racing Santander in the round-of-16 of the Copa del Rey<\/a>, when new loan signing Jo\u00e3o Cancelo<\/a> is in line to make his second debut for the club following a spell in Catalonia in the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n

“It’s in our minds that he can play some minutes, yes,” Flick added when asked if the full-back, who has joined from Saudi Pro League<\/a> side Al Hilal<\/a> until the end of the season, could feature. “Jo\u00e3o is a fantastic footballer, very professional. He has a lot of quality, also in the offence. This is what we need.<\/p>\n

Barcelona coach Hansi Flick poses next to former Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso prior to the recent Supercopa.\u00a0EFE\/Marc Graupera\/FC Barcelona<\/p>\n

“We need players when the opponent is in the last third and we have to play, to overplay them, I think we need quality there. He’s a good option for that.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Flick said it’s likely that Joan Garc\u00eda<\/a> will start in goal, despite giving minutes to Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen<\/a> in the last round against Guadalajara.<\/p>\n

Flick has reiterated in recent weeks that Garc\u00eda is No.1, with sources telling ESPN Ter Stegen will be allowed to leave Bar\u00e7a this month if he wants as Wojciech Szczesny<\/a> is able to deputise for Garc\u00eda if needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona coach Hansi Flick on Wednesday said Xabi Alonso will land a new job quickly, backing the outgoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-412735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}