The class of Xabi Alonso as player, coach and man
“Remember Xabi,” Rafa Benitez told his Liverpool players as they left the dressing room at Anfield on May 3, 2005. Remember that Alonso, their popular, game-changing midfielder, was sitting in the stands, suspended following a harsh booking for a challenge on Eidur Gudjohnsen in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Chelsea. Remember they all were convinced that Gudjohnsen dived to ensure the influential Alonso was out of the return.
Liverpool marched on to the pitch on a mission, duly defeated Gudjohnsen and company to reach Istanbul where Alonso started alongside Gerrard in one of the greatest Champions League finals of all time.
Alonso returns to Anfield this evening with his Bayer Leverkusen side and the memories will come flooding back for him and Liverpool fans. The Kop will salute him. They don’t forget the goals, the will to win and commitment over 210 games. They also remember his class as a man. Alonso represented the club well. They were frustrated when he left for Real Madrid in 2009, sensing that he didn’t want to leave and that it was partially attributable to alleged tensions with Benitez. He’d missed a game against Inter Milan to be at the birth of a child. That showed Alonso’s values, and his substance as a family man. That made people respect him even more.
So tonight’s game at Anfield will be about human values, celebrating a man as well as a former player. Typically, when talking to reporters at Anfield yesterday, Alonso just wanted to focus on the game. But he matters hugely to Liverpool. Beloved former players never fully leave a club. They remain part of the folklore, values that shape the present.
Sit in the media room at Old Trafford and see how staff pause and watch the great Bryan Robson when he walks through heading between club and corporate assignments. Try to get into the media entrance at Arsenal when Alan Smith or Lee Dixon head in on broadcast duties. Fans gather round, young and old, reliving golden moments, revelling in being close to history made flesh. It helps that Smith and Dixon, like Robson and Alonso, are such instinctively likeable individuals. It enhances their reputation even more that there are no airs or graces. Just grace.