Leverkusen City Council Mulls Naming Street After Xabi Alonso

The Leverkusen city council is examining the requirements to officially name a street, a square or a road after Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso.

Alonso led Leverkusen to a historic maiden Bundesliga title and they were crowned champions after a 5-0 win over Werder Bremen on Sunday.

Ahead of the match, fans placed “Xabi-Alonso-Allee” (Xabi Alonso Avenue) stickers on street signs and the city is now looking into ways of making it official.

Alonso, sporting director Simon Rolfes and CEO Fernando Carro are also to become honorary citizens of the city, a statement said on Monday.

Rolfes said he didn’t get much sleep after the club claimed the historic title, but stressed he wasn’t the last one to leave the party.

“I didn’t sleep for too long,” Rolfes told broadcasters ZDF in their Morgenmagazin morning show.

He admitted he couldn’t tell how long the party lasted on Sunday evening “because the players kept it going.”

Leverkusen will receive the Bundesliga trophy only on the final matchday of the season on May 18 and, according to dpa information, the official title party will take place at the BayArena on May 26, a day after the German Cup final.

“We still have a few goals, the big party will take place after the German Cup final. Yesterday everything was very spontaneous, but these are usually the most beautiful celebrations,” he said.

Leverkusen are favourites to win the Cup final against Kaiserslautern on May 25.

“This is something very special, and we will do everything to achieve it,” Rolfes said.

A treble winning season is also still possible, as they took an important step towards the Europa League semi-finals with a 2-0 win in the first leg of their quarter-finals clash against West Ham.

Leverkusen are unbeaten in all of their 43 season matches and a record 29 in the Bundesliga in 2023-24.