Xabi Alonso dons his work attire to begin preparing for the Club World Cup

Sixteen days after closing the league with a 2-0 victory against Real Sociedad, which allowed Kylian Mbappé to secure the Pichichi Trophy and the Golden Boot, as well as paying a well-deserved and emotional tribute to Luka Modric and Carlo Ancelotti for their services, Real Madrid began preparing for their imminent participation in the Club World Cup with the first training session at the Valdebebas Sports City under the guidance of their brand-new coach, Xabi Alonso.

Still without the internationals who packed their bags to serve their respective national teams over the past week, the coach from Tolosa donned his work attire to outline the main physical and tactical plans with which he will tackle an exciting challenge starting next week: to strive to make Real Madrid the first champion of the tournament that FIFA will bring together several of the world's best teams every four years.

Like a child with new shoes, Xabi Alonso was eager as he began giving instructions this Monday to the limited number of first-team players he could count on for what was his first training session as Real Madrid's manager. A session conditioned by the absence of the nine internationals who paraded with their national teams and have not yet returned to the Spanish capital (the Spaniard Dean Huijsen, the Frenchmen Kylian Mbappé and Aurélien Tchouameni, the Croatian Luka Modric, the Englishmen Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Brazilian Vinicius, the Ukrainian Andriy Lunin, and the Turk Arda Güler), but in which the Basque coach was able to establish contact with some of the players who are expected to play a leading role in the new era opening under his leadership at the 'white house'.

Fran García, Lucas Vázquez, Dani Ceballos, Raúl Asencio, and Brahim Díaz, as well as the injured Éder Militao, Dani Carvajal, Thibaut Courtois, Fede Valverde, Rodrygo Goes, Antonio Rüdiger, Ferland Mendy, Endrick, David Alaba, and Eduardo Camavinga, began to internalize Xabi Alonso's lessons, who completed the training session by calling up nine players from La Fábrica: Gonzalo García, Víctor Muñoz, Chema Andrés, Yusi, Jacobo Ramón, Jesús Fortea, Diego Aguado, Fran González, and Sergio Mestre.

The day began with physical work on the pitch. Subsequently, the players performed various exercises focused on possession, control, ball distribution, and pressing in midfield and full field, concluding with several running series, as detailed by Real Madrid on their website. Militao, Courtois, Carvajal, Alaba, and Brahim completed part of the session with the group. Valverde, who continues to have back discomfort, worked inside the facilities, while Rüdiger, Mendy, Endrick, and Camavinga continue with their respective recovery processes.

It was the first of four days of work ahead for Xabi Alonso before Real Madrid heads to the United States on Friday, where five days later the team will debut in the Club World Cup facing Al Hilal. The Saudi team, which has just appointed Italian Simone Inzaghi, runner-up in Europe with Inter, as their coach, will be the first test in the new phase for the whites, who will face the Mexican Pachuca on June 22 and conclude the group stage facing the Austrian Salzburg on the 27th.

With the signings of Huijsen and Alexander-Arnold already closed and awaiting presentations to be held this week, Real Madrid is also working to bring in Spanish left-back Álvaro Carreras and young Argentine midfielder Franco Mastantuono, although they will need to accelerate ongoing negotiations for any of them to participate in the tournament, as the first transfer window closes on Wednesday, although there will be an opportunity to register new players between June 27 and July 3.