Xabi Alonso Sparks Rumours over Bayern Munich Future with Contract Comments

Bayern Munich midfielder Xabi Alonso has cast doubts over whether he’ll remain at the Allianz Arena beyond this season, insisting he is not thinking about a contract extension at this time. 

“I'm not wasting any thoughts on it at the moment," he told German football magazine Kicker (h/t ESPN FC). "The end of the season is still far away in the future.”

Matthias Schrader/Associated Press

The former Real Madrid and Liverpool midfielder has less than one year remaining on his contract with the German champions, meaning he could potentially leave the club on a free transfer next summer. 

Since joining up with Pep Guardiola at Bayern, Alonso has become a critical part of this superb team. Here’s a look back at some of his best moments with the club so far:

You suspect Bayern will be desperate to keep Alonso around. The 33-year-old still possesses the legs to get about the pitch. The ex-World Cup winner remains arguably the best passer of a football anywhere in the world and for a manager like Guardiola, that’s a tremendous option to have.

As we can see here courtesy of Squawka Football, there is no player in German football capable of bossing a game quite like Alonso on such a consistent basis:

He’s showcased exceptional versatility as of late, too. While Alonso has played almost exclusively as a central midfielder in Germany, England and Spain, in Bayern’s previous outing he dropped back into central defence alongside another makeshift centre-back in David Alaba. Against a very impressive Bayer Leverkusen side, the midfielder did a terrific job.

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“Tonight, a new centre-back was born," Bayern sporting executive Matthias Sammer told Kicker afterwards, per ESPN FC. "Alonso has played a world-class match.”

As we can see here courtesy of Football Stuff, playing that deep gave Alonso more room to arrow passes into dangerous areas, including this sensational one for Bayern’s opening goal in the game:

Needless to say, despite approaching the twilight of his career, all at Bayern will want to keep Alonso around. It’s natural to have players of his age on shorter contracts and while that can prompt speculation about their future, the Spanish midfielder-cum-defender seems very content with life in Bavaria and he brings so many positive attributes to this team.

With Guardiola not committing his future to the club himself yet—he also has less than a year remaining on his contract—perhaps Alonso will hold fire until knowing for sure which manager he will be playing under. Nevertheless, the Bayern hierarchy should be doing their utmost to extend his stay at the club by another season at least.