‘It’s great a lad from the town has done well for himself’: Kells remembers the summer of Xabi Alonso

‘It’s great a lad from the town has done well for himself’: Kells remembers the summer of Xabi AlonsoXabi Alonso is back in Ireland this week, where on Wednesday night he manages Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final against Atalanta at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

Each housing estate’s team had a badge of identity – the Grove were hard, Rockfield were soft, Windy had an electricity pylon plonked where the centre-circle ought to have been and McCullen’s pitch was a hill – you either played up it or down it. And every summer, one or two of the estates landed a baller for several weeks whose tricks and flicks had only ever previously been seen on Match of the Day or Football Italia.

Alonso is back in Ireland this week, where on Wednesday night he manages Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League final against Atalanta at the “And it was noticed that he was a bit special, it definitely was recognised at the time that he was talented. And he wasn’t going around wrapped in cotton wool either, he’d go out there with the boys and whoever was about they’d play for hours.”

“I came here at 14 to Kells, I enjoyed my summer here,” he replied. “It’s always great to come back to Dublin, I feel that connection since then and my Liverpool years as well, the connection with Ireland is really strong, so it’s great to be here.”“It was very different to go to Ireland from the north of Spain, because of the weather, for instance. The culture is totally different but it was nice to spend a month there,” he said.

Mark Butler is vice-chairman of Kells Celtic, he can’t say for certain if he played against Alonso in the nineties, but he’s not quite prepared to say he didn’t either. Mark will be in Dublin tonight to attend the Europa League final.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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