Are Real Madrid ready to begin Alonso era at Club World Cup?

When Real Madrid marked their upcoming involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup with a post on their social media accounts on Saturday, the biggest face in the composite image wasn’t that of star striker Kylian Mbappé.

It wasn’t Vinícius Júnior’s or Jude Bellingham’s, either, although all three superstars were featured, alongside the competition’s glistening trophy and images of soaring U.S. skyscrapers and bridges.

Instead, the image was dominated by the — admittedly very handsome — face of new coach Xabi Alonso. It has been only a few weeks, but already Madridistas couldn’t be more excited about the Alonso era, his messianic promise outshining the combined star power of three of the game’s most high-profile players.

The new coach’s arrival — returning to the club where he impressed as a player and later began his coaching journey at the academy — was made official on May 25, the day after Madrid’s 2024-25 LaLiga season ended. He took his first training session on June 9, just seven days ago. But already Alonso’s Madrid are in Palm Beach, Florida, preparing for the Club World Cup.

Beyond the hype, clues as to exactly what Alonso has planned for the team have been scarce. At home in Madrid, at the club’s Valdebebas base, training took place behind closed doors last week. Just 15 minutes of Sunday’s first open session in the United States, at their training camp in Palm Beach Gardens, were open to the media. But the little we’ve seen of Alonso at work, in photos and video carefully compiled and released by the club, has been intriguing.

Every image has already been pored over and analyzed by fans. In one photo, from a set released by the club on June 9, Alonso sits in an office with five of his key coaching staff: Sebas Parrilla (assistant manager), Ismael Camenforte (fitness coach), Alberto Encinas and Beñat Labaien (analysts) and Luis Lopis (the ongoing goalkeeping coach). Their laptops are at the ready, with what look like tactical plans on the screens. Alonso is poised with a tablet in front of him. The intended message, perhaps a little unfairly, is clear: This is a thoroughly modern coach, unlike his predecessor, Carlo Ancelotti.

Training footage shows Alonso to be just as focused, interventionist and detail-orientated as you’d expect: actively directing, stopping play when necessary, pointing and shouting, watching his players’ every move and frequently correcting their positioning.

Again, the contrast with the more laid-back Ancelotti couldn’t be more stark. Alonso might have played under the chilled-out Italian; but he learned his trade under Rafa Benítez, José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola, too.

At his introductory news conference on May 26, Alonso provided more hints as to the kind of team we might see begin to evolve at the Club World Cup and to flourish in LaLiga next season. He said: “Today in football you have to be flexible, and dynamic. You have to move pieces around during games. I have an idea of how we want to play, but the system can change, with four [defenders], or with three.

“What I want is that we know how to choose our moments, to be organized, to control the ball, and know what to do when we don’t have the ball. You have to press when it’s necessary, and sit back when it’s necessary. It’s about taking the initiative, and we have the players to do it.”

We’ll get a first real glimpse of how close Alonso’s embryonic side are to that ideal when Madrid kick off against Al Hilal at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, on Wednesday.

The task ahead for Alonso is considerable. Madrid underperformed last season, slumping into an ineffective shadow of the team that won LaLiga and the Champions League the year before. When pushed, Alonso refused to provide an analysis of the side’s weaknesses, reluctant to get into specifics.

“I’ve seen the games, I’ve analyzed them, and now I’m thinking about what we can do to have balance and control,” he said. “That will give us a stability which will enable the individual qualities to flourish.”

Balance and control. Both were lacking for Ancelotti’s Madrid last season. The campaign wasn’t a catastrophe: The team finished second in LaLiga, kept the title race alive until May and reached the Copa del Rey final. But Madrid were embarrassed in their Champions League round-of-16 elimination to Arsenal, losing 5-1 on aggregate — and they lost four consecutive Clásicos to Barcelona for the first time in 15 years, including the 4-3 on May 11 that handed Barça the league. Mbappé might have scored 43 goals in all competitions, but he was just about the only functioning part of the team.

That meant Ancelotti had to lose his job. It was a decision Ancelotti himself accepted and understood, content to bid an emotional farewell and move on to a next destination he had long fancied, as Brazil’s national team coach. For an equally long time — dating back years — Alonso had been Madrid’s favorite to replace him. That view was backed up by his performance at Bayer Leverkusen, with their 2023-24 unbeaten Bundesliga title-winning season.

Circumstances made the handover unexpectedly awkward. Madrid couldn’t act while they were still, even theoretically, in the title race. Alonso, respectfully, didn’t want to make his future plans public until the end of Leverkusen’s season. And Brazil’s football federation was keen — for internal, political reasons — to secure Ancelotti as soon as possible. The result was Alonso confirming his Leverkusen departure on May 9, and Ancelotti then being announced as Brazil coach, 11 days before his Madrid exit would be made official.

It didn’t bother Ancelotti much, though, and he gave his former player his blessing, calling Alonso a “fantastic” coach who had “all doors open to him.” The outgoing boss said of his successor: “He’s shown himself to be one of the best coaches in the world.”

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When Alonso was finally presented as Madrid’s new coach on May 26, he was predictably assured, charismatic and eloquent. However, there were some subjects he had to work hard to avoid, such as exactly when Madrid had offered him the job, and how much input he’d had on issues such as the decision not to award veteran midfielder Luka Modric a new contract.

He wouldn’t commit to a formation, saying again that “football is dynamic.” When asked how he would help Mbappé and Vini Jr. work together as a front two, he answered enigmatically: “I have ideas.” There was more detail on a position for Jude Bellingham — “I see him as a midfielder. We’ll try to make sure he’s as efficient as possible” — and a noncommittal answer on Rodrygo who, sources have told ESPN, wants clarity on his future role. “I’ll talk to all the players, because we have to get to know each other,” Alonso said.

This Club World Cup is a half-way house, standing between two seasons, two eras, and two Real Madrid teams. Veterans like Modric and Lucas Vázquez will play for Madrid in the tournament for the last time, before their contracts expire. Two new players, center back Dean Huijsen and right back Trent Alexander-Arnold, have already signed and are with the squad in Florida. Two more are in the United States, but elsewhere. River Plate playmaker Franco Mastantuono will join in August when he turns 18, while left back Álvaro Carreras is still with Benfica, the two clubs unable to agree on a fee.

Ball-playing defender Huijsen believes he “fits in well with Xabi’s football.” Alexander-Arnold says Alonso was a “big idol” for him as a kid, and more than that, he has already affected the development of the full back’s playing style. “He impacted my game growing up,” Alexander-Arnold said at his unveiling on Thursday. “Watching him pass the ball gave me the hunger to do that. … He’s a new manager, but he’s shown how amazing he is. I’ll be soaking up all the information I can.”

Alonso was reluctant to take on the Club World Cup and would have preferred to begin afterward. An interim, internal appointment was considered, like director of football Santi Solari, before being dismissed as impractical.

Alonso has not had time yet to properly assemble a new team, with a new philosophy and identity, but the demands at Madrid are blind to that. They will be as high as ever. An early elimination, even in the knockout phase, would be viewed as unacceptable. But there’s also the alluring possibility of a good performance, an early proof of concept for Alonso’s project. “These are the circumstances, and once it’s like that, I see it as an opportunity,” Alonso insisted last month. “On the one hand, to get started with processes, how we want [the team] to be. And then on the other hand, to fight for a trophy. If we do those two things, it can be a great start.”

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Those “circumstances” include three players — Vini Jr., Arda Güler and Andriy Lunin — meeting up with Alonso and the squad for the very first time on Saturday, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palm Beach, after their international commitments ended. Other crucial figures — Mbappé, Bellingham, Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen, Modric and Aurélien Tchouaméni — only returned on Friday, meaning that they will have only completed five training sessions before Alonso’s first game in charge.

And then there’s a long list of others — Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, Antonio Rüdiger, David Alaba, Eduardo Camavinga, Endrick and Ferland Mendy — who are still not fully fit and are working on their recovery. All were named in Madrid’s Club World Cup squad and have traveled to the U.S.

Speaking on arrival in Palm Beach, Alonso did his best to stay upbeat. “It’s been very positive,” he said. “You get to know [the players] little by little, having that contact, that’s very necessary. And more players are arriving.

“Everything has been sped up a lot, because we have very little time to get to know each other. Today we arrived, and we’ll start to make a team. We have three training sessions before the [Al Hilal] match, but we’re excited to be here, to have a good tournament, and to go all the way to the end.”

That’s Madrid’s target: getting to the final at MetLife Stadium and winning it. But there’s also another, even more important objective: building an improved team for next season, a team that won’t get hammered repeatedly by Barcelona or bested by any top side they come up against in the Champions League. And in that regard, it’s not yet clear if this tournament will be a help, or a hindrance.