Alejandro Grimaldo was Xabi Alonso's first signing at Bayer Leverkusen. He was also, apparently, the one who couldn't follow him to Real Madrid — even when the opportunity seemed to be right there.
In a candid interview with AS, the Spanish full-back confirmed the closeness of their working relationship while also making clear that the widely-reported transfer link to Los Blancos never had legs. "When you go to a club like Madrid, well, I guess you can't bring in every player you like," he said. That's about as honest as footballers ever get about the gap between personal loyalty and institutional reality.
What Grimaldo actually thinks about Alonso's Madrid exit
Grimaldo didn't hide his surprise at Alonso's sacking. "I was one of those who said he was going to be successful," he said — and then, pointedly, added that he still believes it. "I don't think they were doing badly at the time he left."
It's a measured dig, but a dig nonetheless. Alonso inherited a dressing room that's notoriously difficult to manage, and the results at the time of his departure weren't catastrophic by most managers' standards. Whether the pressure came from above or below, Grimaldo clearly doesn't think the football itself was the problem.
Alonso is now at Chelsea, and Grimaldo's take on his former coach is worth paying attention to: "I know his mindset, his ideas about soccer, and I know he has an incredible future ahead of him." Coming from someone who spent years playing in a system Alonso built from scratch — a system that won Leverkusen their first-ever Bundesliga title — that's not just loyalty talking.
What this means going forward
For Grimaldo, still operating at a high level in the Bundesliga under Leverkusen's new setup, the Madrid chapter is closed. He and Alonso go their separate ways — one in west London, one still in Leverkusen where their shared success story began.
"We had to go our separate ways" sums it up cleanly. No bitterness, no unfinished business. Just two careers that briefly orbited the same transfer rumour and then moved on.
