The 'Quinta Xabi', inspired by Guardiola, seduces Europe

Spanish slate sets a trend in Europe. The new generation of coaches trained in the League dominates the continent's main championships. Exportation of talent in the management of top-level groups.

The main reference of this fifth is Xabi Alonso, who rules the Bundesliga with an exultant Bayer Leverkusen. They lead the classification with 42 points in 16 games, with 13 wins and three draws. It is the only team in the German championship that has not suffered defeat and leads Bayern by four points, although the Munich team has one game less.

Xabi Alonso's group is also on display in the Europa League: it finished the group stage in first position, with a total of six victories. The Basque coach generates respect and admiration, and there are already many who venture that he will be the natural replacement for Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. The Tolosarra knows that he occupies center stage, but does not lose perspective: “We are on the right path, but talking now about the fight for the Bundesliga title would not be very intelligent.”

Xabi Alonso is 42 years old and only one younger is Mikel Arteta, who this season is leading the way in the Premier with Arsenal. They faced the start of this Boxing Day as first classified and maintain a tense struggle with Liverpool. In the Champions League, the Gunners finished first in the group and in the round of 16 they will face Porto. Arteta, who is in his fifth season in the Premier, is a coach who demands maximum concentration from his players. “I want players with energy, who know how to live with stress,” said the San Sebastian coach, one of Pep Guardiola's outstanding students (52 years old), already an institution at Manchester City, monarch of the Premier and the Champions League and last winner of the club World Cup.

Andoni Iraola (41 years old) is another Basque member of this new generation. After triumphing at Rayo Vallecano, last summer he was hired by Bournemouth, a modest Premier club, which, led by the Biscayan coach, is in the middle of the Premier table.. Last Tuesday, on Boxing Day, they defeated Fulham (3-0).

In the Premier League, the enormous season of Unai Emery (48 years old) at Aston Villa, which occupies third place and has been able to defeat Manchester City and Arsenal 1-0, is also surprising.. “When they signed me, they asked me to create a competitive team, to fight for the top four in the Premier League and compete for European titles,” declared the Gipuzkoan in a recent interview published in EL MUNDO.. «I like the Premier because of what football in England means. When I was little, they told me that for Athletic fans, going to football was like going to mass.. “I didn't even know who the rival was, but they were going to the Cathedral, the same thing happens here.”

MICHEL SANCHEZ

This season is also being unforgettable for Michel Sánchez (48 years old), the trendy coach in the League with his surprising Girona, who has reached the Christmas break tied on points with Real Madrid at the head of the standings.. They have only lost one game, precisely against Carlo Ancelotti's team, and they are the highest scoring team, with 42 goals, three more than the whites. Michel confesses that he is going through an unrepeatable moment, but he does not go crazy. “This could be a historic season, we are in a cloud, but we have to keep our feet on the ground and continue working on a day-to-day basis,” he recently declared in an interview in As, in which he also confessed his admiration for Pep Guardiola. : “He is very competitive, he is always reinventing himself, looking for solutions to improve, to be perfect and improve.”

In France, Luis Enrique's PSG dominates (53), although it does so with more difficulties than expected. Qatar's powerful squad paid for by public funds has qualified with difficulty for the round of 16 of the Champions League. In France, Carles Martínez Novell (39 years old) directs Toulouse, which is struggling to get out of dangerous positions. Marcelino García Toral left Olympique de Marseille due to the conflicts generated by ultra fans.

In Italy's first category there is no Spanish coach, but David Rodríguez (31 years old) is already beginning to stand out in Milan's second team.