Name	Xabi Alonso
Height	6 ft
Naionality	Spanish
Date of Birth	25 November 1981
Place of Birth	Tolosa, Spain
Famous for	Football Player

Xabi Alonso is a Spanish footballer who plays for Real Madrid as a central midfielder. He is well known for his passing ability, and is regarded as one of the best passers of the ball in the world. Alonso began his career at Real Sociedad, the main team of his home region Gipuzkoa. After a brief loan period at SD Eibar, he returned to Sociedad where then-manager John Toshack appointed Alonso as his team captain.

Alonso succeeded in the role, taking Real Sociedad to second place in the 2002–03 seasons. He moved to Liverpool in August 2004 for £10.5 million. He won the UEFA Champions League in his first season at the club, scoring the equalising goal in the Final. The following season, he won the FA Cup and the FA Community Shield. He moved to Real Madrid for the start of the 2009–10 seasons in a deal worth around £30 million. Alonso was named in the Spanish squad for the 2006 World Cup and he scored Spain's first goal of the tournament, his first international goal, against Ukraine on 14 June 2006. Despite a successful group phase, where Spain won all their games, Alonso did not achieve international glory as the teams were beaten by the eventual finalists France in the first knockout stage of the tournament. Xabi Alonso started every game for Spain during the 2010 tournament, playing alongside Sergio Busquets and Xavi in midfield and helping his side to lift their first ever World Cup trophy. In the 28th minute of the final against the Netherlands he received a Kung fu-style kick to the chest from Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong, the foul was controversial since it appeared to be a foul worthy of a straight red but was only ruled out to be a yellow card given by Howard Webb. This left Alonso in pain and in fear of a broken rib.

Despite this pain, he continued playing on for another hour. On 23 June 2012, Xabi Alonso played his 100th match for Spain in the quarterfinals against France in which he scored both goals in a 2–0 victory for Spain. The first goal came after he headed a cross from the left flank delivered by Jordi Alba, while the second one came from a penalty kick given after Pedro Rodríguez was fouled by Anthony Reveillere in the dying seconds of the match. Alonso missed Spain's first penalty in the semi-final shoot-out against Portugal, in which Spain went on to win 4–2 after a 0–0 draw in game itself.