Xabi Alonso, the 44-year-old Basque coach, has reached an agreement to become Chelsea's new head coach on a four-year contract running until June 2030, according to multiple authoritative sources including the BBC, The Athletic and Sky Sports. The announcement came on the same day Chelsea lost the FA Cup final to Manchester City (0-1), capping a turbulent season for the south London club. An official confirmation is expected in the coming days.
Alonso visited London earlier this week and was Chelsea's first choice throughout the process, ahead of other candidates including Andoni Iraola. He has been without a job since leaving Real Madrid in January, having spent only seven months at the Spanish capital club. His tenure there ended following a defeat to Barcelona, with reports pointing to a difficult relationship with some key players and insufficient institutional support from the club's leadership as underlying factors. Before Madrid, Alonso built his coaching reputation at Bayer Leverkusen, the German club, where he dismantled Bayern Munich's long domestic dominance, leading Leverkusen to an historic unbeaten Bundesliga title in 2024 — the club's first ever — while also winning the German Cup and reaching a European final.
Chelsea have cycled through managers at a remarkable pace since the club was expropriated from Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich by the British government in 2022 and taken over by new American ownership. Alonso will be the fifth permanent appointment in that period, following Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, Enzo Maresca and Liam Rosenior. Maresca's departure in January came after reports that Manchester City had contacted him as a potential replacement for Pep Guardiola, which damaged his standing at the club. Rosenior, who replaced him, lasted just over three months. Interim coach Calum McFarlane has been in charge for the past two weeks.
Alonso also carries deep personal ties to English football. He spent five seasons at Liverpool (2004–2009), establishing himself as one of the most influential midfielders in the world and featuring in the iconic 2005 Champions League final victory in Istanbul. Liverpool had reportedly made him a firm managerial offer in 2024, which he declined in favour of the Real Madrid project. His standing in England remains high, with broad sentiment that the poor results at Madrid were not primarily his fault.
Why this matters: Chelsea finished the season in ninth place in the Premier League, raising the prospect of missing out on European football entirely — a damaging outcome for a club that won the FIFA Club World Cup just last summer. Alonso's appointment signals an attempt to restore stability and direction to a squad regarded as one of the most expensively assembled in European football, but one that has so far failed to deliver consistent results.