At a glance
- Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas backs the club rehiring Xabi Alonso over Jose Mourinho.
- While Alonso was fired in January, Mourinho is being backed for a second stint in the Bernabeu hotsteat.
- Days before El Clasico, tensions are running high in Valdebebas among player disputes.
Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas would rehire fired Xabi Alonso as head coach if he had his way.
Alonso was dismissed in January after losing the Super Cup final to FC Barcelona. Before that, however, there had already been reports of player rebellion and difficulty controlling a divided locker room.
With fights between Aurelien Tchouameni and Fede Valverde this week, these have re-emerged. Alonso’s replacement Alvaro Arbeloa also seems powerless, and many back briging in a discilplinarian like Jose Mourinho to steady the ship.
Speaking from a Movistar event with FC Barcelona icon Carles Puyol ahead of El Clasico, Casillas backed his former club and country teammate.
“I suppose that Madrid will assess what is best for next year, just as maybe I can also opt for Alvaro to continue as coach. I have no idea. If you keep asking me, I will tell you that for me the ideal coach that Madrid had was Xabi Alonso. He was the perfect coach, always giving continuity and confidence. But then decisions are made, as in his day the decision was made to dismiss Rafa BenItez for Zidane and it went well,” Casillas pointed out.
“I would have liked Xabi Alonso to continue. He had success at Leverkusen, and with the youth he has he is the right one for Real Madrid. If you ask me, I would sign Xabi Alonso again,” the ex-shotstopper reiterated.
Casillas comments are nothing to do with previous Mourinho rift at Real Madrid
Casillas made it clear that his comments are made “on the basis that I have no problem with you asking me about Mourinho”.
“I don’t care, we had a difficult era. It is what it is, but that’s it,” Casillas stressed, about his time with the Portuguese in the early 2010s.
Regarding the Tchouameni and Valverde fight, “everything has a solution”. “These are things that happen in a dressing room and it is true that it is prior to a Clásico where Barça can win the League. But what they have to do is solve it from within,” he added.
Who Florentino Perez chooses as the right man to do that could define Madrid’s 2026/2027 season.
