Former Bayern Munich defender David Alaba joined Real Madrid on a free transfer in July after his contract with the Bavarians came to an end. The Austrian, who joined the Bundesliga club in 2008, brought an end to a 13-year stay in Munich and admitted that the switch wasn’t easy.
Alaba always mentioned that Munich is his second home, and having spent so many years in the city, he has a lot of friends over there and said it was tough to give up all that comfort to take up this challenge in Madrid. The Austrian also added that he is forced to speak in Spanish sometimes as a lot of people at his current club don’t understand English, but he is getting used to it.
“It [Bayern] was a second home after 13 years there. I had an important role at the club and in the team. I knew the city from top to bottom and I had a lot of friends in Munich. I had to give up a lot of comfort to join Real Madrid.
A lot of people in the dressing room don’t speak English, so that forces me to speak Spanish. But giving an interview in Spanish would be something else completely,”
Alaba said.
Real Madrid chairman Florentino Perez was the chief architect in bringing Alaba to the club, with the defender’s contract-extension negotiations with Bayern not resulting in anything positive for the reigning Bundesliga champions. A number of European clubs rallied across to get his signature, but as it turns out, Alaba chose to join the Galacticos.
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He became an instant star under Carlo Ancelotti and has seamlessly slotted in both the left-back and centre-back roles, just the way he did back in Bayern. He has made 23 appearances thus far for Real Madrid, out of which 17 came in the La Liga, and the side managed to finish on top of their league and Champions League groups.
There seems to be no stopping the Santiago Bernabeu-based unit from lifting their 35th La Liga title to steer further away from Barcelona’s tally of 26 titles. Sevilla are currently Real’s closest competitors, with the club eight points behind the table-toppers with a game in hand. Defending champions Atletico Madrid and arch-rivals Barcelona played one game less than Real, but are a whopping 17 and 18 points away, respectively.
Alaba made his presence felt and contributed profusely to this sensational run of form Ancelotti’s team have shown. He also scored two goals for the club, with his first coming in the 2-1 win over Barcelona in the El Clasico, making him only the second Austrian footballer to score in this fixture since Hans Krankl.
With Barcelona losing their dominating touch in the Spanish league, the last few years has seen the title race go down the wire. Atletico won it on the final day of the season last time, and even Real Madrid’s triumph in 2019/20 did not come very easy.
But the Spanish giants aren’t just keen on closing down the La Liga title race. They also want to go all the way in the Champions League to make it 14 titles for the Men in White.
Alaba is no stranger to adding trophies to his cabinet, having won a staggering 27 titles with Bayern, which includes 10 league triumphs, two Champions League wins, six DFB Pokal Cups wins and two FIFA Club World Cup triumphs.
