Real Madrid will look to the past in bid to restore former glories

Real Madrid will look to the past in their bid to restore the club to former glories as they target FOUR ex-players on their shortlist to replace Carlo Ancelotti as head coach

• Real Madrid will see current head coach Carlo Ancelotti leave next summer 
• The Spanish giants could look to the stars of their past to fill the void in 2024 
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Real Madrid will go back to the future when they pick the man to take over from Carlo Ancelotti, who has agreed to become Brazil’s head coach at the end of next season.

There are four candidates in the frame and are all former Madrid players; one has already coached the club twice and led them to three Champions League successes.

It may be only the pull of the French national job that keeps Zinedine Zidane out of the Bernabeu for a third term. And if he is not the man to take over in 2024, then Xabi Alonso, Raul Gonzalez and Alvaro Arbeloa are the other heirs to Carlo’s throne.

Zidane wants to get back into the game and is still in contact with Madrid president Florentino Perez. He likes the idea of taking over the French national team but for now that is not an option for him.

In general terms club football interests him less. He has no desire to coach in England and his allegiance to Marseille has always stood between him and the Paris Saint-Germain job. Italy, especially Juventus, is a possibility, but Madrid represents a better chance of continuing his incredible trophies record.

Carlo Ancelotti is set to take on the Brazil national team role when his contract ends in 2024

It could lead to the return of Zinedine Zidane for a third spell in charge of Real Madrid

His fingerprints are also very much on the current Real Madrid squad. He has already coached Vinicius and Rodrygo and urged the club to sign Aurelien Tchouameni. Jude Bellingham has referenced him as his hero and taken his number five shirt.

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ODDS ON NEXT REAL MADRID MANAGER 

Raul – 3/1

Xabi Alonso – 4/1

Julian Nagelsmann – 9/2

Zindedine Zidane – 5/1

Jose Mourinho – 13/2 

Odds supplied by Paddy Power

When Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2022 Bellingham was in a private box in Paris with Zidane – close enough for him to ask a question of his hero. ‘I would have talked his ear off if he had let me’ he admitted at his Madrid presentation.

Eduardo Camavinga has also mentioned the huge influence Zidane had on him as a youngster. The player told Mail Sport in an interview last year: ‘Zidane was my idol – he was all our idols! I used to do the famous ‘roulette’ I’d seen on a Zidane skills YouTube video.’

Zidane also ticks another very important box. Kylian Mbappe might be more inclined to arrive if his hero is the coach. Madrid are looking for a manager to work with their young squad rather than another Ancelotti who can manage the egos of established stars but the potential outlier in the 2024-25 season squad is Mbappe who will need a certain degree of ‘Ancelotti-style’ governance. Zidane could provide that.

His relationship with Perez remains solid and a third act to his managerial role at the club cannot be ruled out unless the France job is offered to him and Madrid can’t compete with the chance for Zidane to take the French into the 2026 World Cup.

Alonso is next in line. He was alongside Zidane watching from the sidelines when the club won their tenth European Cup in 2014 in Lisbon. Zidane was Ancelotti’s assistant at the time and Alonso was still a player but suspended for the final. Everything that has happened to him since suggests he can coach Real Madrid one day.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso, also a former Real star, is next in line to take on the top job 

Bayer Leverkusen went on an unbeaten run of 13 games when Alonso took charge of the side in deep relegation trouble last season. The BayArena became a regular 30,000 sell-out and he took to within 90 minutes of the Europa League final before qualifying for Europe via the league.

His pragmatic style suits Madrid and his previous work with young players at Real Sociedad’s B-team suggest he will fit a young squad. He is nothing if not shrewd though, as he showed towards the end of last season when he silenced all the talk of him moving on by agreeing to stay at Leverkusen this coming season. If he sees Real Madrid from Bayer Leverkusen as too big a jump then Madrid may have to look in-house, at the last two candidates, Raul and Arbeloa.

Both did well last season. Arbeloa won the league with the Under 18s and Raul so nearly got ‘Castilla’ (Madrid’s second team) promoted to Spain’s second division. They drew the play-off final 3-3 despite having led 0-2 and 2-3 but their rivals went up by virtue of having had the better league position at the end of the season. It’s the second time Raul had taken Castilla to the play-offs without gaining promotion.

Raul almost led Real Madrid Castilla to promotion to the second division in Spain last season

Alvaro Arbeloa won the league with the Under 18s and has also impressed within the club

Raul had the more illustrious Madrid career and is the senior of the two in terms of coaching experience so far, but Arbeloa has friends in high places at Madrid. Raul still looks to be ahead of him on the starting grid but what happens next season will be key and if Raul is tempted to test himself as a coach away from Madrid then that would move Arbeloa up one position.

None of the options will be a complete jump into the dark for Real Madrid as hiring someone like Julian Nagelsmann would be. All are coaches with their names written into the history of the club, none will need a tour of the Valdebebas training ground should they get the job. 

Madrid have briefed that they could still offer Ancelotti a new contract during next season to keep him from taking over Brazil in 2024. But, in truth they have already turned the page and are ready for the new chapter – one with a very familiar look to it.

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