After Bayer Leverkusen’s euphoric celebrations had calmed down a bit, the hero who planned it all found time for his family.
Xabi Alonso posted a snapshot on Instagram with his wife Nagore and their three children Jontxu, Ane and Emma, all smiling in the Leverkusen locker room.
“My team,” he captioned it, with a heart emoji.
It was the Spanish coach’s way of showing his gratitude for his family’s sacrifices during what has been a historic, but very intense, season for the German club.
On Sunday, a 5-0 home win over Werder Bremen secured Leverkusen their first Bundesliga title and could still add the German Cup and UEFA Europa League.
Xabi Alonso poses with his wife Nagore and their three children Jontxu, Ane and Emma after Bayer Leverkusen won a historic Bundesliga title last weekend.
His wife Nagore Aranburu was a teenage sweetheart and the couple married in 2009.
Alonso photographed with Juan Mata at the launch of an IWC Schaffhausen watch in Geneva in 2016
What is truly extraordinary is that Alonso’s team has yet to suffer a defeat this season.
His talented and glamorous wife Nagore has worked as a model, actress and fashion designer.
The couple were teenage sweethearts who met when Alonso was playing for the Real Sociedad kids club in their native Basque region.
They married in 2009, just as Alonso moved from Liverpool to Real Madrid. During his time on Merseyside, Nagore worked as a hotel receptionist, leading to a hilarious story involving team-mate Peter Crouch.
“On signing for Liverpool, I stayed at the Hope Street Hotel,” Crouch wrote in his 2018 autobiography.
‘At the reception there was a girl so pretty I couldn’t believe she was smiling at me all the time.
‘I told the boys in training. “Honestly, she’s beautiful. I think I have a scream here.” Jamie Carragher called up some other senior players. “Tell him again, Crouchie.” So I did it.
‘She’s on top of me. I am turned on.’ Carra again, all interest. “How is she?” “Incredible. Dark hair. Spanish looking. I’m there.”
“It turned out that it was Xabi Alonso’s partner. He was doing some work to practice his language skills. He was nice about it. She too. Carra less…’
Alonso’s love for vintage cars is well known and the Spaniard has teamed up with Porsche Design
Peter Crouch mistook Nagore’s courtesy for affection when he found her working as a receptionist at the Hope Street Hotel when he was playing for Liverpool.
Nagore has followed Xabi’s football career throughout Europe, both as a player and as a coach
The last stop is Leverkusen, where Alonso has already written his name in history
Nagore and his three children have followed Xabi’s career from San Sebastián to Liverpool, Madrid, Munich and then back to the Basque Country when he began his coaching career at Sociedad.
Leverkusen then proved to be the perfect next step as Alonso rejected links with Liverpool and Bayern to stay at the club and coach them in next season’s Champions League.
He first learned English during a visit to Kells in County Meath, Ireland, when he was 16 years old.
“I stayed with the O’Brien family and I remember the parents were there, two boys and two girls,” Alonso later recalled.
“It was very different going to Ireland from the north of Spain, for example because of the climate. The culture is totally different, but it was nice to spend a month there.”
Alonso played football during his visit but also tried Gaelic football at Kells Celtic. ‘I played with some of the local boys. He was very fast, very hard. Maybe they should wear protective helmets,” he recalled.
During a school exchange visit to Ireland when he was 16, Alonso watched a Meath Gaelic football match and remains a fan of the team.
Alonso at the wheel of a classic Porsche in a photo shoot: the Spanish media nicknamed him James Bond
Alonso plays air guitar at the Bayern Munich Christmas Circus Gala in 2015
However, Alonso attended a Meath GAA match and apparently loved the experience and remained a fan of the team.
As a teenager, Alonso enrolled in engineering in San Sebastián and thought about becoming an economist before getting his big break in the Sociedad first team.
Renowned for his elegant play in midfield, still evident on Leverkusen’s training pitches, Alonso is equally smooth outside of it.
He even earned the nickname ‘James Bond’ in the Spanish media after a partnership with Adidas and Porsche Design that saw Alonso get behind the wheel of several vintage cars.
Alonso, 42, owns a Mercedes 190 SL convertible worth £165,000, although as a player he preferred a less flashy Audi.
However, he doesn’t mind spending money on nice watches, as his collection includes watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe, Franck Muller, Audemars Piguet and Panerai.
His most prized item is an IWC Ingenieur, valued at around £10,500, which was a gift from Nagore on their wedding day.
“It represents the fact that I found a woman who thought about me, what I like and my personality,” he told The Journal.
“I don’t use it much, only on very special occasions.
Xabi and his wife on board a boat during one of their holidays away from football
Cycling was one of the ways Alonso used to stay fit and active when he was a Bayern Munich player.
The soccer coach tries his hand at surfing in an Instagram photo
“For me, every special moment is linked to a particular watch, and every time I put it on I am transported back to that moment, like when we won the Champions League with Liverpool.” [in 2005] or the World Cup with Spain [2010]’.
But a nice watch will be your only accessory. ‘Tattoos are not for me. “I just don’t imagine myself with piercings, chains or anything else,” he told Suddeutsche Zeitung in 2016. “Obviously, I’m hopelessly old-fashioned.”
However, the Instagram photo showing Alonso skiing and surfing suggests a more lively side to his personality.
At the moment, after Leverkusen finally ended one of sport’s longest curses, there is no hotter property in football.