Xabi Alonso on Rejecting Liverpool: “It Was More About What I Had”

The Bayer Leverkusen manager avoided going into too much detail but said his decision to remain in Germany was all about his current project.

Following Jürgen Klopp’s announcement late in January that he would be leaving Liverpool Football Club at the end of the 2023-24 season, the focus quickly turned to Xabi Alonso, with the former Red in the midst of an invincible league season at Bayer Leverkusen.

For many, he was the top choice. Maybe the only choice. And for a time everyone thought he was destined to take over from Klopp. In the end, though, Alonso decided he needed to keep his focus and his future on where he was and what he had at the Bundesliga club.

“All these decisions, they need to be thorough,” he told CNN this week. “You need to really think about them. And it was more about what I had, not what I’m missing. For sure, my bond with Liverpool is there and it’s still there. So there’s no, any kind of issue with that.”

Pressed on whether he’d had any conversations with Liverpool about potentially taking over from Klopp, Alonso insisted he would keep any such details “behind the curtains,” itself a seemingly tacit admission high-level talks took place between the club and manager.

Regardless, even with his Liverpool links and the opportunity to take what would widely be seen as a step up, it’s not hard to understand why Alonso wanted the chance to continue his journey with Leverkusen and lead the club into the Champions League next season.

As for Liverpool, if new head coach Arne Slot is successful it may be that that window will have passed for Alonso, at least for the foreseeable future, but there remains speculation that Real Madrid and Bayern Munich could be options for him in the summer of 2025.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com