Ring of Fire

by Simon Hughes

  ‘When you are young, your mind is very receptive to what it sees,’ Alonso continues. ‘My father was a professional footballer, so it was normal for me to witness how a professional footballer acts in a professional environment. He did not have to tell me anything, because I saw. He was a player and then he was a manager. I would hear him tell other players that it is not about making a debut. It’s about maintaining a high level for a decade. Only then are you a real professional. That has always been in my mind. If you are not at your top level, no matter what you have done before, someone else will come and kick you out of the team.’

  Alonso’s favourite players played in the same position that he would later make his own. There was Real Madrid’s Argentine, Fernando Redondo, Pep Guardiola from Barcelona, as well as the Portuguese midfield duo at Real Sociedad, Carlos Xavier and Oceano. His own dreams began and ended at his hometown club, though he did not join them until he was seventeen.

  ‘I did not think I would become a footballer,’ he says. ‘I led a normal life until I was sixteen. Normal school. Normal upbringing. People talk now about the distractions when you are a young footballer. I was fortunate that I did not have any distractions from being a young person, because football can take over everything. In the long term, I think this has helped my outlook on life. Maybe it is more balanced than someone who has been at an academy from the age of five or six, as happens in England now. I was able to enjoy other things and maintain a raw passion for football.’

  Other clubs had asked him to enrol at their youth academies. At sixteen, he rejected an opportunity to sign for Athletic Bilbao.

  ‘They had two teams at each age group and for the under-16s they wanted me to play for the second team. Bilbao is one hour away by bus. I said, “No, I prefer to stay at home instead with Antiguoko.” My dad knew football. He did not get directly involved too much. But from the back he was pulling the strings. “Don’t try to rush it,” he’d tell me all of the time.

  ‘Within a year, I had made my debut for the first team at Sociedad. Everything happened so fast. The second year, I went on loan to Eibar and then came back. John Toshack helped make me an important player. I had no time to think, What if this happens? What if that happens? My football career just happened. Living without the anxieties of wondering about the future all the time helped me.’

  Toshack could not recall a youth-team player having such an impact at any of his previous clubs. ‘Everyone seemed to play better when he was on the pitch,’ Toshack said after Alonso had told his manager that he ‘was not afraid of responsibility’, a moment which led to him being awarded the captaincy in a final attempt to change the atmosphere and avoid relegation. Sociedad were bottom of the league when Toshack made the decision in January 2001, and when the season was over, they had survived. Toshack was feted as a hero, but without Alonso’s direction on the field it would not have happened. ‘We knew we had a special player on our hands,’ Toshack said.

  Alonso displays his humility by crediting Toshack, the former Liverpool striker, as ‘the great saviour of football in our city’ and the only one with the faith ‘to treat a kid as an adult in an adult’s world’. Yet by the time Alonso was ready to leave in the summer of 2004 for a new challenge, he had emerged as a new leader of the club. In the two seasons before he moved to England, the public address system at the Anoeta Stadium would make the same announcement whenever his substitution was deemed necessary: ‘And coming off is number four, Don Xabi Alonso.’

  Alonso had been close to joining Real Madrid, where he would have replaced David Beckham in the centre of midfield, but Madrid had doubts about his pace and mobility.

  ‘It dragged on and on and on and on with Madrid. It was exasperating. Then Liverpool approached with a very serious interest. Madrid had taken a couple of months to reach the same point in negotiation that Liverpool reached in a couple of days. I was like, “Come on, it’s either going to happen or it is not – decision time.” I decided that if Liverpool wanted me so much, I preferred to go there. I saw Liverpool as a great chance, a top club.’

  He describes how he formed his childhood impressions of English football ‘through the keyhole of the television camera, following only the ball’. Even from afar, however, he could spot differences from what he knew in Spain.

  ‘I can remember the 1995–96 Premier League season very clearly. In Spain, they started to show Premier League games and Serie A. Until that moment, I had only seen Spanish football. The English? It caught my eye. It was different because of the atmosphere. It was sometimes difficult to hear the commentator because of the noise inside the stadium. I liked watching Paul Ince, Gary McAllister, Roy Keane and Peter Beardsley. They were all similar: aggressive. You might not think Beardsley was aggressive, because he was creative. But in creating opportunities he was very aggressive: he passed with conviction. The intensity of the game – wow – it was end to end, no breaks. I liked that football. It is fresh in my mind. Shearer went to Newcastle. The Liverpool players wore white suits for the FA Cup final – they had some courage, no?’

  Alonso made his Liverpool debut against Bolton Wanderers in a game where Sami Hyypiä broke his nose and Rafael Benítez called Sam Allardyce’s side a ‘basketball team’.

  ‘We lost and I walked off the pitch, thinking, I’m going to have to learn really quickly about English football. It was wild: long ball, second ball, big physical players – Kevin Nolan, Kevin Davies up front; Allardyce chewing gum and shouting orders from his technical area. The crowd was noisy but I could still hear Allardyce. When Bolton won a free kick, the army from the defence moved forward and the ground began to shake.’

  Some footballers claim they do not notice what happens on the terraces when they play.

  ‘I notice . . .’ Alonso says ‘. . . both the good and the bad things that are said. I loved England from the first minute. It’s about the sound of the stadium. When there is silence, it is not because they don’t care about the game, it’s because they are paying attention to what is going on. But when they show emotion – admiration or anger – the noise is like lightning hitting a tree. I sometimes wonder whether a crack will open up across the pitch. For me, the sound of the stadium in England is the best. When a goal is scored in Spain, people shout “Gol!” but only once. In England, it’s “Yeah!” a million times. I love this. In England, the passion of the football is the best. Of course, you need more than just passion to be successful. You need ideas and the strength to stay with those ideas through bad times.’

  Alonso felt at home almost straight away. Rather than live outside the city as many do, or even in a prosperous suburb such as Woolton or Formby, he bought an apartment in a Grade I listed building in the Albert Dock, an area surrounded by bars, galleries and with broad views of the Mersey. His girlfriend, Nagore, now his wife, moved with him and worked at the prestigious Hope Street Hotel over in the Georgian quarter, where the Liverpool squad would gather before home games.

  ‘I could smell the marine air and it reminded me of San Sebastián,’ he says, smiling, though the smiles do not extend to the memories of the wind blasting in from the Irish Sea: ‘The most difficult thing to get used to, not the temperature.

  ‘A lot of players came to Liverpool from Latin American countries while I was there and many of them did not adapt quickly enough,’ he continues. ‘It resulted in them being left out of the team and from there the future collapses. In many cases you have seen players not being able to adapt and therefore not being able to show their levels [of skill].

  ‘In my case, it did not happen. I was determined to absorb and learn as much as possible. In England, people eat a lot earlier than in Spain, for example. In Spain, I could arrive at a restaurant at midnight and the place would be busy. In England, even at weekends, most places are closed by 11 p.m. For me this was not a problem, though. It is a matter of intelligence. You cannot change the culture. You have to accept it and adapt and live with it. It’s not really a drama. Come on – get ove
r it!’

  In successive summers when Alonso was thirteen and fourteen, he’d spent a month in Kells, Ireland, having enrolled on a school exchange programme.

  ‘This was important for me and maybe a bit of luck. From the first moment in Liverpool, I was able to communicate with my teammates and to be involved. I could not talk perfect English but at least I could express myself. In the first press conference, I spoke in dodgy English but at least I tried it.’

  The family Alonso lived with in Kells supported Manchester United. Along with the Merseyside derby, this was the game he looked forward to the most.

  ‘The Merseyside derby is for the city. During the week, Everton fans, they will tell you what they think. There is banter. It is semi-serious. It still acts as motivation to beat them, because when you fill up at the petrol station and you see the same people every couple of days, and you know they are Evertonians behind the counter, the idea of seeing them after losing in the derby is not very appealing.

  ‘The taxi drivers in Liverpool, they speak a lot. Many of them seem to be Evertonians as well. They like to talk about Liverpool, to tell you where as a player you are going wrong. I loved this. I would argue back with them and they appreciated it. The humour in Liverpool is very different to any other place I have been. They give it, but they take it back.

  ‘There is a community spirit in Liverpool that I believe does not exist anywhere else in the world in a city of its size. I used to walk around the city from my apartment and go shopping. The people, they would be very respectful. It might not be the same for a local player, because there is so much focus on them, but as a foreign player, you can live a normal life. I travel a lot around the world and sometimes I will see a face and without hearing that person’s voice I will know they are from Liverpool. It’s something to do with the way they look. Liverpool people have a mark.’

  Alonso is not one to exaggerate. He describes games against United as ‘like war’.

  ‘The supporters do not see each other every day, so when the teams come together it is not so normal. There is a clash. These games, there is no friendliness whatsoever. I would compare it to Madrid and Barça: there is a geographical distance between the clubs, as well as many other things. There is less of an understanding. So when they meet, it is like a collision. I played against Roy Keane. It was his last full season at United. I could see his eyes. He really wanted to win those games. But I looked at Carra and Stevie too. It was always going to be hostile.’

  Alonso says the spine of Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League-winning side was already there by the time he arrived. He equalized to make it 3–3 in the final against AC Milan by scoring the rebound, having seen his initial penalty saved.

  ‘Carra, Stevie, Sami and Didi were all huge influences on everyone else. All different characters, strong personalities. When each one of them spoke, I listened. They helped me improve as a player and as a person, and when I went back to Spain to play for the national team I felt a lot stronger through the experiences shared with them. English football has had a profound effect on the improvement of Spanish players. Pepe [Reina], Cesc [Fàbregas] and David Silva might say the same. [Gerard] Piqué did not play many games for United’s first team but the experience helped him when he returned to Barcelona.

  ‘I liked Carra the most,’ he continues. ‘He is the biggest Scouser in the world. We got on well from day one. I think he realized that I loved football and he loves football too. We would watch games together and talk about it every day. I think he respected that I would enter arguments with him. He was always very loud; you could hear his voice above everyone else’s. I would say, “Carra, shut the fuck up, you have no idea!” He liked all of that: the confrontation. He had ability of course and his reading of the game was fantastic. But I think he, maybe more than anyone else, was driven by the confrontation, the challenge of proving yourself every single day.’

  Alonso believes winning the title in 2009 would have been more satisfying than the Champions League, because ‘to win the league you need to have everything.

  ‘These were my happiest times at Liverpool: Pep to [Daniel] Agger, Agger to me, me to Stevie and Stevie to Torres. Sometimes it would take less than ten seconds. The spine in that team was the best I’ve played in. You also have Carra and Mascherano in the side – top-class players. There was skill, steel and speed; it was very competitive, very intense. Very, very determined and committed.

  ‘This side did not win anything together but we felt we could win everything. We had a few stupid draws at home and in the end that’s why we did not win the league. We always had that feeling, that belief and confidence. Nobody scared us. We went to the Bernabéu and won. We went to Old Trafford and won. We went to Stamford Bridge and won: big games, big occasions that define seasons. It frustrates me so, so much. In 2005, we won the Champions League with a not-so-good team. In 2007, we lost the Champions League final with a better team and a more convincing performance. In 2009, we played the best football and lost the least amount of games but still did not win the league. That is the beauty of football, I guess. It is not a straight line.’

  The highs, indeed, may have been exhilarating but the lows were equally excruciating. While Alonso was helping Spain win the European Championship in 2008, he was also coming to terms with the fact that Rafael Benítez was trying to sell him against his wishes. As Spain’s open-top bus crept through the centre of Madrid amidst the celebrations, there was a niggling thought at the back of his mind that his time on Merseyside could possibly arrive at a sudden and disappointing end.

  Benítez had believed that Alonso could be as influential to his Liverpool side as Kenny Dalglish was to Bob Paisley’s and as Dennis Bergkamp had been at Arsenal.

  Yet by March 2008, the cracks in the relationship between Alonso and Benítez started to show. Alonso had missed the second leg of a Champions League last-sixteen tie against Internazionale at the San Siro to be with his wife as she gave birth to their son. ‘Which I’d have done a thousand times.’ Benítez, though, had missed his own father’s funeral because of Liverpool’s commitments at the 2005 Club World Championship in Japan and Alonso’s decision came at a time when his form had dipped. At the end of the season, Benítez made a controversial decision.

  ‘Rafa came to me and was very clear. He said, “Xabi, we need the money to sign other players that I want.” In order to make that money, my name was the first on the list to be sold. I said, “OK, Rafa, no problem. I am a professional. I understand that.” There was interest from Juventus. There was interest from Arsenal. But the clubs could not agree terms. I was ready to leave, because the manager wanted me to leave. It did not happen, though. So the next year, the situation was different. I went to Rafa: “OK, a year ago you wanted me to leave and I accepted it. Now I want to leave . . .” In the end, there was an agreement but it was not easy because he wanted me to stay by that point.’

  From their time in Spain, Alonso had known about Benítez’s reputation as a determined manager, one who would not bend to satisfy common opinion. Alonso was arguably Liverpool’s most popular foreign player, his name sometimes sung before Steven Gerrard’s on match days at Anfield. In a pre-season friendly against Lazio, when rumours were circulating about Alonso being sold to finance Gareth Barry’s move to Liverpool, the roar from the terraces was deafening when Alonso’s name was read out. ‘You can shove your Gareth Barry up your arse,’ the Kop chorused. Jan Mølby, the Danish midfielder who had starred in Liverpool’s greatest teams and someone Alonso had been compared to due to passing range, spoke out about the possible move, stating it would be Benítez’s worst decision since taking charge. Though Alonso remained, the reality is, had Arsenal or Juventus matched Liverpool’s £18 million asking price, he would have departed sooner than he did.

  He uses the word ‘professional’ when describing his connection with Benítez thereafter, insisting that he did not harbour a grudge, ‘because I’m not that type of character’. I suggest to him that it
could not have been nice – as it would not be in any working environment – to discover your boss does not rate you as highly as previously believed.

  ‘I was surprised,’ Alonso admits. ‘I was disappointed too, because I was very happy in Liverpool. I could walk down the street and people would beep their car horns and wave. I went for meals in restaurants with my wife [then girlfriend] and everybody was very polite and courteous. When my family visited from San Sebastián, we could explore the city without any fuss being made of us.

  ‘None of this would matter to Rafa, of course, but why should it? He was the manager. He is always under pressure. He has his way of doing things. He has never changed. He probably won’t. He was that way at Tenerife. He was the same at Valencia. Then at Liverpool too.

  ‘I played against Valencia for Real Sociedad and his team was like him: extremely organized, you could say quite stubborn. He wasn’t afraid to make big decisions and I respect his opinion as a coach because his way has been successful in many places.’

  The last thing Alonso probably wants to do now is endanger the bond he created with supporters and teammates alike by being seen to put the boot in. He is smart enough to recognize that both he and Benítez remain popular on Merseyside. Yet judging by the way he speaks, it seems inescapable that Benítez instilled a sense of resentment that made Alonso’s departure inevitable.

  ‘Yes, I can admit that my relationship with Rafa wasn’t as good as it had been in the first year,’ he says. ‘But I didn’t ask to leave because of that. I had been five years at Liverpool. I had the feeling it was the right thing to do. At the end of the season, the same thought was running through my mind: Do I move on or do I keep doing the same thing? You can be happy and restless at the same time: eager to try something different, intrigued by another project. Moving from Liverpool to Madrid was the most difficult step to make in terms of the decision. I was doing well at Liverpool. My family were settled and happy. But I felt that I had new things to learn, new challenges to take. You only live once. Life, for me, is about experiences. The only thing I regret is not winning the Premier League with Liverpool. I’ll never know how that feels and experience the reaction of the city, as I did after Istanbul. It hurts because I know the people want the league title more than anything.’