Vinicius vs Xabi Alonso: what's going on?
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Real Madrid are top of La Liga and have won three from four in the Champions League, but there’s always drama around the corner at the Bernabeu.
Vinicius Junior has told the club he doesn’t want to renew his contract while his relationship with head coach Xabi Alonso remains strained.
So… who will end up winning this battle: star player or head coach?
Host: Ayo Akinwolere
Guests: Mario Cortegana, Dermot Corrigan, Jack Lang
Executive Producer: Abi Paterson
Producers: Mike Stavrou, Nick Thomson, Liam Warburton
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.1 | Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayur Akim Mulare. |
| 0:09.0 | Despite a solid start to the season, there is more drama at Real Madrid. |
| 0:13.7 | Benissius Jr. has told the club he doesn't want to renew his contract, |
| 0:17.6 | while his relationship with head coach Jabby Alonzo remain strained. |
| 0:22.1 | So, who's winning this battle? |
| 0:25.5 | All right, with us today, we've got our Real Madrid correspondent, Mario Cotegana, we've got Dermot-Coregan, we've also got Jack Lang with us as well. |
| 0:33.0 | All right, Mario, take us back a little bit to the beginning. |
| 0:35.4 | When the friction between Vinicius and Alonzo actually started? |
| 0:41.9 | Yeah, we should go back really at the Club World Cup, |
| 0:45.6 | almost at the beginning of the Alonso era, |
| 0:48.6 | because the coach had planned to bench Benetius |
| 0:52.0 | in the Club World Cup semi-final against Paris and Germain. |
| 0:57.4 | Trent Alexander Arnold's injury prevented that, but Benetius was our, about his coach plan. |
| 1:06.0 | So the start wasn't the best for them, and then you just have to take a look to the statistics. |
| 1:13.4 | He has been benched four times, something that is really unusual, not just for Benithio, |
| 1:20.1 | but for any start in the world of football. |
| 1:24.1 | And he has just finished 5 out of 17 games played for Real Madrid this season. |
| 1:32.7 | So this is the current situation which is far from ideal. |
| 1:37.8 | Yeah, I mean, he was also benched for the Elche game that Real Madrid drew 2 too as well. |
| 1:43.9 | But talk to us about his current contract situation. |
| 1:47.6 | What is the latest with that? |
... |
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