Thiago Alcantara has certainly been keeping himself busy after his retirement from football in 2024.
Image Credits: Imago Images
Thiago Alcântara’s playing career came to a premature end at Liverpool after injuries and persistent physical struggles made it impossible to continue at the highest level.
The Spanish midfielder, who graced the pitches of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Liverpool with technical brilliance and footballing intelligence, announced his retirement in July 2024 at just 33 years old.
Despite his body betraying him in his final seasons—particularly during an Anfield tenure marred by setbacks—Thiago’s class remained undeniable whenever he stepped onto the field.
But the former Reds midfielder has been keeping himself since.
In September 2025, Thiago returned to Barcelona’s first-team setup as an assistant coach under Hansi Flick, the manager he previously worked with as a player during Bayern Munich’s historic 2020 treble-winning campaign.
However, Barcelona is only part of Thiago’s post-retirement story.
What may come as a surprise to many Liverpool supporters is that Thiago has also taken on a prominent boardroom role at CE L’Hospitalet, a historic Catalan club currently competing in Spain’s fifth tier, Tercera Federación.
Alongside Thiago on the board is his former Barcelona and Spain teammate Jordi Alba, who recently retired from professional football after completing his final season with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.
Alba, speaking in an exclusive interview with Spanish newspaper SPORT, confirmed the project and explained why it motivated him to step away from playing despite having years remaining on his Miami contract.
“On a personal level, I’m involved in a project now that motivates me more,” Alba revealed. “I was starting to notice that I was already thinking about other things, other projects that I was really excited about. And I have to admit that day-to-day life was starting to get hard for me. Not in the matches, where I still enjoy myself”.
The left-back elaborated further on L’Hospitalet specifically, describing it as a long-held dream and explaining that he and Thiago’s roles will focus more on the sporting side:
“It’s a beautiful project and from L’Hospitalet, nothing excites me more. It’s the right time to leave football and be there every day. I couldn’t have done it anywhere else,” Alba said.
“It’s a project I’ve had in mind for many years. The opportunity came up with Thiago [Alcântara], with Óscar, with Gonzalo, people from Glovo who are handling the financial side, while Thiago and I will probably be more involved on the sporting side. It excites me a lot”.
Finally, he added that the goal is to get the Catalan side to La Liga in the future:
“I hope we reach La Liga in a few years, but it requires a lot of work, not just on the field but also socially,” Alba explained.
“I believe we can contribute a lot to the city. I come from there and I know the hard-working people. I hope we can take that step and lift the club to the level it deserves”.
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, located just outside Barcelona, has a population of over 280,000—larger than cities like Getafe, Girona, and Valladolid, all of whom have clubs in La Liga or have recently competed there
Yet L’Hospitalet’s football club has spent most of its existence in the lower tiers, with only three brief seasons in Spain’s second division during the 1960s.
The club currently plays at the 6,740-capacity Estadi Municipal de Futbol de L’Hospitalet.
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