Mark OgdenApr 13, 2026, 04:57 AM ET
Real Madrid usually get what they want; whether it is signing the world's best players, or winning the biggest trophies. But as their dismal season threatens to come to a shuddering halt against Bayern Munich in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal this week, it is likely to trigger a manager search that will satisfy nobody at the world's biggest club.
Madrid are nine points adrift of LaLiga leaders Barcelona and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey in the round of 16 against second-tier Albacete. If they fail to overturn a 2-1 deficit away at Bayern on Wednesday, they will face a second successive season without a major trophy, and Alvaro Arbeloa, who replaced Xabi Alonso as coach in January, can forget about remaining in post beyond the summer.
But finding a new manager who is capable of measuring up to Madrid's unique demands -- an A-list coach with a winning track record, who will impress a demanding dressing-room and fanbase with his personality, and also deliver immediate success -- will be tougher than ever before for president Florentino Perez.
Perez's usual options at a time of crisis -- Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane -- are off the table due to commitments elsewhere, with Ancelotti expected to extend his contract with Brazil and Zidane lined up to succeed Didier Deschamps as France coach.
Ancelotti won three Champions Leagues and two LaLiga titles during two spells as Madrid coach, while Zidane delivered the same Champions League and LaLiga trophy haul as Ancelotti, also over two separate periods as coach. And, crucially, both were able to walk into the dressing room and command the absolute respect of an ego-filled squad -- something Alonso was unable to do during his six months in charge earlier this season.
Alonso arrived into the Madrid job with legendary status as a Champions League and LaLiga winner as a player; his feats at Bayer Leverkusen as a manager, where he won a German Bundesliga title without suffering a defeat to end Bayern's decade-long domestic stranglehold, added luster to his reputation. But it all counted for nothing once Madrid's high-profile players decided he wasn't for them.
Madrid believed they were hiring football's next young superstar coach, but Perez misjudged the strength of the dressing room, and that is why the next manager search will be so difficult.
The club need to hire a winner, but also someone who will not suffer the same issues with players that befell Alonso. So where do they turn? If Perez is looking at the potential options, he will see a field that lacks a single outstanding candidate.
There is no rising star out there with a similar track record to Alonso and the best coaches -- Manchester City's Pep Guardiola and Paris Saint-Germain's Luis Enrique, who could win a second-successive Champions League title this season -- would be impossible to lure to Madrid ... and not just because both managed Barcelona.
Thomas Tuchel might have appealed, simply because he is a previous Champions League winner with Chelsea, but the former Borussia Dortmund, PSG and Bayern coach has recently committed himself to a new contract as England manager.
The five names leading the bookmakers' odds to become the next permanent Madrid manager illustrate the lack of genuine options open to Perez.
Arbeloa is the favorite, but after five defeats in 19 games in charge, there is virtually no chance of the 43-year-old continuing into next season.
Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp is the second favorite and given he now works as head of global soccer for the Red Bull Group, he would be a compelling appointment. He ticks every box, both in terms of track record and presence, but the 58-year-old dismissed reports linking him to Madrid last month as "nonsense," while he has previously played down the appeal of working for the club.
Beyond Klopp, the next two names on the list are AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri and United States men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino.
Allegri, 58, is a widely respected tactician who has won domestic titles with Milan and Juventus, but he has never won a European trophy and his last league title came Juventus in 2019, so he is hardly the hot name in coaching right now.
The same could be said of Pochettino, whose only domestic title was his 2021-22 Ligue 1 success with PSG. The former Tottenham and Chelsea coach has spent almost two years in charge of the U.S., but his reputation has not been enhanced during a turbulent period that has seen him lose nine of 24 games in charge.
Benfica's Jose Mourinho, Germany's Julian Nagelsmann and Bournemouth's Andoni Iraola are some of the other names in the frame, while Aston Villa's Unai Emery and former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca (unemployed) have also been linked with a move to the Bernabeu. But each has more negatives alongside their names than positives.
So Madrid have limited options for the summer ahead, but it is a situation that they have created for themselves. They dispensed with Ancelotti a year ago because the serial winner went one season without a trophy, while Alonso was sacrificed in favor of sparing the feelings of some leading players rather than backed to do the job he was hired to do.
Madrid ditched the perfect coach in Ancelotti and failed to back his successor, so they have been left with a weak field of candidates. Unless they pull off a major coup by hiring Luis Enrique or Klopp, they just won't get what they really want or need this summer.
