Why Xabi Alonso Is Real Madrid's second Most Significant Player Behind Ronaldo - Bleacher Record

"Do you know Cristiano Ronaldo?," Xabi Alonso exposed his son asked himAin a recent interview with the Spanish version of Vanity Fair. Jon Alonso, who's only five, had come home from college having been told by his friends that his father knew Real Madrid's No. 7. "I told him he was my teammate and this 1 day I would introduce them," answered the 31-year-old key midfielder. His little child had no idea of who his dad was, or how popular he's, to the position that when Alonso is approached for athletes he thinks that each and every individual who asks for one is just a friend of the Los Blancos midfielder. With that in mind, he is most likely not quite willing to learn just how important he's to the ruling La Liga winners. But even when Jon is not conscious of that just yet, the rest of the football world are pretty sure in their examination that the Spanish international may be the 2nd most significant person at his club behind Ronaldo. Sir Alex Ferguson was certainly conscious of the risk the former Liverpool person carries when Madrid visited Old Trafford in the Champions League in March. The way Jose Mourinho's staff play makes Alonso and his depth of moving a key take into account their program. Along with Sami Khedira together of two deep midfielders, Bonea'as his friends back in San Sebastian affectionately know hima'is the orchestrator for the majority of Real Madrid attacks. The Manchester United manager recognized this and, therefore, thrust a man-marking work upon him by Danny Welbecka'quite the supplement. In Manhattan project Liga this year Alonso has averaged 67.4 moves per gamea'a staff large at Real Madrid. Sergio Ramos averages the next most (58.8) and next there's not really a player with more than 50 travels per match. The Champions League has kept Madrid's Number. 14 even busier, yielded on average 72.6 moves per game, and in both games his average doesn't drop below an 82 % completion rate (viaAWhoScored.com). via piktochart.com They're not useless passes either. During the season he has put on five assists in creating 45 chancesa'that's more chances than Xavi Hernandez (32) and Andres Iniesta (37) have each created at Barcelona (via squawka.com). His potential is reason for concern, though. With his agreement expiring in the summer of 2014, his dada'Periko Alonso, a former Manhattan project Liga winnera'spoke to MARCA about the fact that his daughter is in no rush to tie his future down in the Spanish capital: "What he really wants to do is to wait a bit to see what goes on and how things go, and then, when the time is right, he will make the correct choice. It's as that as simple - there is nothing else to it." He will only be 32 when his contract expires, and while there are others who could change the rate and finishing of Angel Di Maria and Karim Benzemaa'who, on type, both fit Madrid's counterattacking gamea'there are less possibilities when it comes to finding someone in a position to manage a game title and trigger problems from the heart of the pitch really like Xabi.