Alvaro Arbeloa brings Spartan passion to Real Madrid. Can he match it with coaching quality?
“No retreat. No surrender. That is Spartan law.”
So says the Instagram bio of new Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa,
Arbeloa earned the nickname ‘El Espartano’ during his time as a Real Madrid player. The full-back was perceived by his supporters to be a courageous and loyal warrior who put himself at the service of the club, then-coach Jose Mourinho and president Florentino Perez.
Not everyone inside or outside the Bernabeu had the same image of Arbeloa, who regularly fought ‘anti-Madridista’ club enemies wherever they were to be found.
Since leaving as a player in 2016, after winning eight trophies including two Champions Leagues, two Copas del Rey and a La Liga title, the now 42-year-old has stayed close to the Madrid hierarchy. Even though his senior coaching experience amounts to seven months in charge of the club’s third-tier reserve side, Real Madrid Castilla, few around the club were surprised when Perez turned to Arbeloa after Xabi Alonso’s sacking on Monday.
“I know where I am, I know what Real Madrid is, and the demands that come from outside,” Arbeloa said at his presentation on Tuesday. “I know what playing well means, and what the fans want their team to transmit: the same thing it has transmitted through its history as, if not, we wouldn’t have all these trophies. Here, one thing is important: winning.”
Born in Salamanca, a city around a two-hour drive to the north-west of the Spanish capital, Arbeloa joined Real Madrid’s youth setup in 2001-02, the season of the first Champions League trophy won under Perez’s presidency with a galactico cast of Iker Casillas, Raul, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.
Originally a centre-back, Arbeloa played regularly for Castilla, alongside future Spain internationals including Juan Mata, Alvaro Negredo, Roberto Soldado and goalkeeper Diego Lopez. But he managed just four senior appearances for Madrid before joining Deportivo La Coruna for €1.3million ($1.5m; £1.1m at current exchange rates) in summer 2006. After six months of regular La Liga football, he moved to Liverpool for €3.9m, joining compatriots Rafa Benitez and Alonso at Anfield.
Arbeloa was handed his Liverpool debut at 23 in the first leg of a Champions League round-of-16 tie with Barcelona at the Camp Nou in February 2007. He impressed man-marking a 19-year-old starlet by the name of Lionel Messi and quickly became an important player in a team that featured fellow Spaniards Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina — although his competitive streak brought an infamous on-pitch confrontation with team-mate Jamie Carragher in May 2009.
That summer, Arbeloa — and Alonso — left Anfield for the Bernabeu, just as Perez returned for his second spell as club president. After Mourinho arrived as coach in summer 2010, Arbeloa became a fixture in the team that won a fierce Copa del Rey final against Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side in 2011, and then claimed the 2011-12 La Liga title with a record 100 points (a total matched by Barca the following season).
Alvaro Arbeloa, centre, alongside Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid’s 2011-12 title celebrations (Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
When Mourinho’s attritional style of management brought friction with senior figures in the dressing room, including Casillas and Sergio Ramos, Arbeloa was always one of the Portuguese manager’s loyal ‘soldiers’, leading to a serious rift — especially with Casillas.
That aggressive defence of his club’s interests may have affected Arbeloa’s international career.
A fringe player for Spain as they won the 2008 European Championship and 2010 World Cup, he played every minute when they added the Euro 2012 title, but was then left out of the 2014 World Cup squad. That followed high-profile clashes with Barcelona’s David Villa in a Clasico and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Costa in a derby match; Arbeloa later claimed in an interview with Real Madrid-focused online media outlet La Galerna that the latter led to Spain coach Vicente del Bosque not including him in future squads.
Dani Carvajal, then 22, went to that World Cup in Brazil instead, and soon became Madrid’s first-choice right-back as well (the 34-year-old is still at the Bernabeu as club captain). Although playing less regularly, Arbeloa remained a high-profile figure in the squad and often acted as its unofficial spokesperson.
The shadow of Mourinho’s influence continued to hang over the club, long after he left in summer 2013 to rejoin Chelsea. But Arbeloa regularly claimed Mourinho deserved credit for bringing an abrasive ‘us against the world’ attitude, which he argued contributed to the four Champions League trophies won in five years under Carlo Ancelotti and Zidane from 2014-18.
“Mourinho opened the eyes of a lot of Madridismo (Madrid supporters),” Arbeloa said in 2016. “Jose saw things with the referees, with the match calendars. And the stuff with the media, of course. There are always double standards.”
Arbeloa’s playing career ended with a year spent at Premier League side West Ham United, where he played just four times over the 2016-17 season due to persistent injury issues. That summer, he retired — aged 34 — but kept up his links with Madrid.
Real Madrid’s official TV channel soon hired Arbeloa — who has a university qualification in journalism — as a pundit. He also made regular ambassadorial appearances for the club, and kept banging the drum for Madrid on social media and in the local press.
“They’re laughing in our faces. Lamentable,” Arbeloa tweeted, when Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for pushing referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea during an August 2017 Supercopa de Espana game against Barcelona.
The following month, Arbeloa publicly backed a call from Perez for an overhaul of La Liga’s refereeing establishment, something he still believes necessary today. “The president spoke better than anyone,” he said. “Referees can make mistakes, but not always mistakes in the same direction.”
In June 2018, when Julen Lopetegui was appointed Madrid coach, Arbeloa was present for his unveiling in the Bernabeu’s VIP suite. His role also involved officially welcoming new signings, including when Eder Militao fainted at his presentation in July 2019.
In November 2020, Arbeloa began coaching in Madrid’s youth system with their under-13 side. As he moved up the age groups, he introduced methods including video analysis and organised, high pressing. His teams have been dominant in the domestic game, but fell in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Youth League — the Champions League’s under-19 equivalent — three years in a row.
Alvaro Arbeloa coaching in the UEFA Youth League in 2023 (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
While coaching in the youth system, Arbeloa gave more interviews than Zidane or Raul had done when they worked in the club’s academy, including criticising now-Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe in May 2022 for remaining at Paris Saint-Germain at the time rather than moving to the Bernabeu when speaking to newspaper El Mundo.
Arbeloa’s combative personality on the pitch was also seen during his youth-coaching career, including in a heated May 2023 touchline confrontation with his ex-Liverpool and Spain team-mate Torres during an under-19 derby between their Madrid and Atletico sides.
He was promoted to the role of Castilla coach last summer — just as his close friend Alonso took over the first team.
After a difficult start, his side climbed the table towards the third-tier play-off positions, although their promotion hopes were hurt by a 4-1 defeat at Arenas Club de Getxo at the weekend.
And while Arbeloa has generally kept a low profile during the season, he was asked in December — with the threat of the sack hanging over his friend from their days at Madrid, Liverpool and Spain — whether Alonso was doing a good enough job.
“(Alonso) is an exceptional coach, obviously over a season at any team there are ups and downs,” Arbeloa replied. “But if anyone thinks Real Madrid is dead, they’re very mistaken, as they don’t know Real Madrid.”
Arbeloa’s elevation from Castilla to the first team is reminiscent of when Zidane got the same promotion in January 2016 to replace the sacked Benitez, with the Frenchman revitalising a struggling side who went on to win the Champions League four months later.
There are also similarities to the 2018-19 campaign, when Lopetegui was fired in the October and former Madrid midfielder Santiago Solari was moved up from the Castilla job as interim successor. Solari was less successful, lasting a little over four months, before Zidane returned for another spell in the dugout.
Among the issues which counted against Alonso in his dealings with both the dressing room and the boardroom during the past eight months was the Basque’s perceived aloof personality. There was a feeling that neither the coach, nor his team, showed enough passion and character, especially when they were in tight situations.
The former full-back, pictured with Jose Mourinho in 2011 (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Arbeloa is unlikely to be criticised for anything like that, but at his presentation on Monday, he did skilfully dodge a question about the current standard of refereeing in Spain — the former full-back was also always going to be asked about his connection to Mourinho.
“It was a privilege and an honour to be coached by him,” Arbeloa replied, with characteristic confidence. “He influenced me a lot and I still carry him inside. But I will be Alvaro Arbeloa.”
Nevertheless, Arbeloa has accepted some conditions which Alonso was not prepared to work under.
Most immediately visible was the presence of veteran physical trainer Antonio Pintus — seen as a favourite of Perez’s — back working again with the players before the Copa del Rey last-16 game tonight (Wednesday) away to struggling second-division side Albacete.
Nobody around the club now doubts that ‘El Espartano’ will bring huge commitment and passion to one of the most challenging managerial jobs in world sport. There will be no retreat and no surrender when the interests of the club and their hierarchy need defending.
Whether Arbeloa can also manage a galactico-filled dressing room, while organising a team capable of winning the biggest trophies, is another question.
