FOOTBALL: Bayer Leverkusen announce the appointment of Liverpool legend Xabi Alonso as their new manager

Liv­er­pool leg­end Xabi Alon­so has been appoint­ed as Bay­er Lev­erkusen’s new manager.

The Bun­desli­ga announced on wednes­day that they had part­ed ways with Ger­ard Seoan.

The for­mer Real Sociedad B team man­ag­er will join the Ger­man club after sign­ing a con­tract until 2024 to replace the Swiss coach.

“I know Lev­erkusen is a great club since I was in Ger­many,” Alon­so said on the club’s website.

Bay­er 04 has always had great play­ers and I think the cur­rent team has many qualities. ”

“Dur­ing our dis­cus­sions with the club, it quick­ly became clear that we were basi­cal­ly pur­su­ing ambi­tious goals despite the cur­rent chal­leng­ing circumstances.”

“I am very much look­ing for­ward to this assign­ment and I am con­fi­dent that we will be able to deliv­er on this ambition.”

Lev­erkusen are cur­rent­ly 17th in the Bun­desli­ga and have won just one of their first eight games.

For­mer Liv­er­pool mid­field­er Alon­so led Sociedad’s sec­ond team for three years.

Before that, he briefly man­aged Real Madrid’s U14s.

After retir­ing from foot­ball the pre­vi­ous year, he start­ed his coach­ing career in 2018.

After three sea­sons at Bay­ern Munich, he retired from play­ing and is a house­hold name in Ger­man football.

Alon­so played 117 times for Bay­ern, win­ning three Bun­desli­ga titles and the DFB-Pokal.

Before that, he spent six years at Real Madrid, win­ning two tro­phies: La Liga, Cham­pi­ons League and Copa del Rey.

But it was Liv­er­pool who made his name known to the world via Real Sociedad.

Alon­so was an Anfield favourite, from 2004 to 2009.

He made 210 appear­ances and scored 19 goals. His great­est achieve­ment was help­ing Liv­er­pool win the 2005 Cham­pi­ons League final.

He also won the 2006 FA Cup Final with Liverpool.

In addi­tion, he has 114 caps for his coun­try and won the 2010 World Cup with Spain.