Grimaldo convinced that Xabi Alonso will 'mark an era' as a coach

Alejandro Grimaldo has become one of the most recognisable faces of Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen. The former Benfica and Barcelona player, who has been very active in the press this week as he already gave an interview to 'The Athletic', spoke to Fabrizio Romano in an interview in which he offered several interesting statements. Among them is the confession that Leo Messi is his childhood idol.

"My childhood idol was Messi. For me, he is the best player of all time and I grew up in La Masia watching him play there, in the first team", he said.

Now focused on the present, where he is aiming to win the Bundesliga, he commented: "I remember that, before I signed, they told me that they were going to do a good project. When I arrived, in pre-season, I saw a team that was even better than I expected. Both the coach and the players were a great team.

"Even I was asked a lot of questions in pre-season and I said 'we are going to give a lot to talk about' because I could feel it, I could feel it already in pre-season. I think that the club has signed important players with experience and that it has young players with a lot of talent and we have made a very good unit," he added. He also spoke about the importance of Xabi Alonso as a coach.

"For me, he is a very special coach. It's clear that I came here because of him, that he treats me very well, that he has helped me to adapt very quickly. He knows how to explain every concept, how to treat the players, how to demand from them but give them confidence, without taking it away from them at any time. I remember, in the game against Stuttgart, in the first half, the team was very bad and he arrived at half-time and said something like 'I don't care if we lose or win. We're going to