Xabi Alonso at Madrid faces a known problem: Find out what it is!

Real Madrid, under the orders of Xabi Alonso, will face the 2025/26 season with the idea that FC Barcelona will not be a protagonist again. Therefore, Xabi Alonso has a big problem to solve regarding the issue of penalties.

In that sense, the 'blanco' team was awarded 19 penalties in the 2024/25 season, of which 7 did not hit the back of the net. Kylian Mbappé had 10 opportunities and missed 3, while Vinicius Jr. kicked on 6 occasions, but in 3 of them he did not convert, in addition Jude Bellingham hit it from 11 steps 2 times, missing 1, and Federico Valverde also kicked 1 penalty, but missed it.

In this way, Xabi Alonso is once again facing a dilemma that he already knows well: the missed penalties - considering his time at Bayer Leverkusen. He already experienced it in the Club World Cup, when Valverde missed from the penalty spot against Al-Hilal. 

Now, with the season about to begin - the team will debut on the 19th against Osasuna - a key question arises: who will be in charge of taking the penalties?

Mbappé, the favorite to be the penalty taker 

In the Madrid dressing room there are several heavyweights with stripes to face the responsibility from the penalty spot. However, for now, the favorite to keep that commitment is Mbappé, who recently became the new number '10' of the 'blancos'.

The Frenchman is one of the leaders of the dressing room, in just one season, and has the endorsement of having converted 44 goals last season, which earned him the 'Pichichi' and the Golden Boot.

The possible election of Mbappé as the main penalty taker is not only due to his leading role in the 'merengue' attack, but also to his solid record from the penalty spot.

Thus, throughout his career, from AS Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and the French national team, in addition to Madrid, the striker has converted 50 penalties, while he has missed 13.

His failures are distributed as follows: three with the white team, eight with the Parisian team and two with the national team. His success rate is 79.3%. 

The penalty spot, a 'bittersweet' memory for Xabi Alonso

In the 2024/25 season, Xabi Alonso was the coach of Bayer Leverkusen, a team that had 6 penalties in the Bundesliga, of which 3 ended up being missed, 2 by Florian Wirtz and 1 by Victor Boniface. 

In total, the German team had 7 maximum penalties; the last one was scored by Florian Wirtz in the UEFA Champions League. The now Liverpool player was the main penalty taker.

It is worth remembering that during the 23/24 season, where Bayer won the Bundesliga and the German Cup, in addition to losing the final of the UEFA Europa League, the team converted 12 of 12 penalties, but did not have a fixed penalty taker, with the penalty takers being as follows: Boniface (5), Wirtz (3), Exequiel Palacios (2), Patrik Schick (1) and Amine Adli (1).