According to Alonso’s confession
De Zerbi, the coach with the trump card
Roberto De Zerbi is currently coaching Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion. photo
© Paul Terry/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
Big clubs in Europe are looking for a new coach for the coming season. A coach takes particular center stage. Although he hasn’t actually won much yet.
And yet De Zerbi is the one football Europe is talking about. Will the Italian go to FC Bayern as the successor to the highly decorated Thomas Tuchel, who failed in Munich? Will the current coach of Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion move to Liverpool FC and take over from Reds favorite Jürgen Klopp at Anfield? Or at FC Barcelona or – who knows – perhaps at Chelsea or Manchester United, as the British Daily Mail recently speculated.
Real Madrid also has to plan
After Xabi Alonso’s commitment to Bayer Leverkusen, Roberto De Zerbi has become something of a royal figure even beyond this (championship) season. Some of Europe’s largest and most traditional clubs definitely need to fill the position of head coach this summer. FC Barcelona should also not decide to withdraw from the announced retirement if club icon Xavi Hernandez does.
At least they still have a bit of time to think about it when it comes to arch-rivals Real Madrid; star coach Carlo Ancelotti has extended his contract until the end of June 2026. However, a coaching castling of considerable proportions this summer could remove potential candidates from the Royals’ offer for the time being. Good planning is everything.
De Zerbi is in a pretty comfortable situation, his contract with Brighton & Hove Albion is valid until mid-2026, he is only 44 years old and in demand. Even if not only well-known clubs are currently looking, but also coaches like Zinedine Zidane and José Mourinho are freely on the market and have sometimes been linked to Bayern Munich by experts or others.
“I told him that he should just keep turning the football world upside down,” Klopp recently reported on the BBC about the warm embrace after Liverpool’s 2-1 win over De Zerbi’s Brighton & Hove Albion. “I’ll watch it from a distance. I have so much respect for what he does.” After nine years at Liverpool, Klopp is taking a break. It should be back on the market in just over a year at the latest.
De Zerbi’s business card: With Brighton in the Europa League
De Zerbi took over Brighton in September 2022 and led the team into international competition in sixth place – one place behind Liverpool. In the Europa League, Brighton & Hove Albion not only survived the group phase, but also moved into the knockout rounds with four wins from six games ahead of Olympique Marseille and Ajax Amsterdam as well as AEK Athens. De Zerbi only failed there this season at AS Roma.
The team, which has had to cope with notable departures such as that of Argentine world champion Alexis Mac Allister last summer and compensate for a large number of injuries, is currently in ninth place in the Premier League with the renewed option of going to the international ranks. “In order to work in Brighton next year, I don’t need to extend for another year or two. That doesn’t change anything,” De Zerbi said at the weekend. “At the moment we have ended the talks about the contract, but not because I have already decided to leave, no, no.”
United legend Keane expresses concerns
De Zerbi, who didn’t make his breakthrough as a teenager at AC Milan, but even played twice in the Champions League against Bayern with Cluj in 2010 (and lost both games), will want to see what opportunities the club can give him. With such interested parties, no wonder. The former midfielder prefers attacking and possession-based football as a coach. “His teams play wonderful football,” praised Manchester United legend Roy Keane. But the Irish football icon also expressed concerns: “When I look at his CV, there are question marks about whether he is ready for the next step.”