Plenty of eyes will be tracking the progress of former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen, though there may be one other Anfield alumnus very much worth bearing in mind for the future also.
Fabrizio Romano popped onto X on Wednesday morning to confirm the sealing of a deal between Bordeaux and NK Celje for Albert Riera, with the ex-fullback having signed a contract as the French outfit’s next head coach.
🔵🔒 Contract signed until June 2025. Albert Riera, new Bordeaux manager. https://t.co/5mzYSkRk1Q
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) October 11, 2023
The now 41-year-old joins having managed Slovenian side Celje for just over three months, with the role in Ligue 2 clearly too attractive to turn down.
A future Liverpool manager?
Make no mistake, Riera has quite some catching up to do before attracting the same level of plaudits as Alonso, who now finds himself subject to links with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
The Spaniard has nonetheless enjoyed a positive start to his fledgling senior coaching career, masterminding 11 wins from 17 across the PRVA Liga and Europa Conference qualifiers, amassing an average of 2.12 points per game.
With all due respect to the Slovenian top-flight, we’d expect French football to offer a greater challenge to his coaching abilities.
Who knows? Perhaps in the coming years we’ll be talking up Riera as a potential Jurgen Klopp successor if he can maintain his upward trajectory in the coaching sphere.