Xabi Alonso has agreed to become Chelsea’s new manager and will start work on July 1, and now reports have confirmed that he will be joined by four trusted staff members next season.
Alonso has put pen to paper on a four-year deal at Stamford Bridge, which begins on July 1. Of course, Alonso is not going to put his feet up for the next six weeks, but he officially takes office then.
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For now, Calum McFarlane will oversee the club’s fixtures against Tottenham and Sunderland. According to BBC Sport, McFarlane will remain on the coaching staff, but four new members will join Alonso’s era.
Xabi Alonso’s four incoming staff members at Chelsea
Sebas Parrilla (assistant manager)
Born in Argentina, 48-year-old Parrilla joined Real Madrid’s youth academy as a coach at just 24. He remained with the Galacticos until 2019, when he joined Xabi Alonso at Real Sociedad’s B-team.
Parrilla has since followed Alonso to Germany to work as his assistant with Bayer Leverkusen, before making an emotional return to Real Madrid six years after leaving in 2019, to continue with Alonso.
Of the four coaches coming in, Parrilla is best-known as Alonso’s right-hand man. He will be front and centre alongside Chelsea’s new gaffer at Stamford Bridge, making decisions on the touchline.
Alberto Encinas (assistant manager)
Encinas, now 44, did not join Alonso until the former Real Madrid midfielder joined Leverkusen. After spells in the lower leagues of Spain, Encinas joined Barcelona’s U19 side as an assistant in 2017.
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He remained there until 2021, before joining Alonso in Germany. Working as an assistant to Barca’s B-team too, Encinas crossed the El Clasico divide when following Alonso to Real Madrid in 2025.
Before joining Leverkusen, then-sporting director Simon Rolfes told the German club’s website of Encinas: “We have high expectations of him, particularly in terms of working with our young players.”
Beñat Labaien (assistant manager)
Labaien is another set for Chelsea, but it is not his first stint in England. Joining Atletico Madrid’s analysis department as a teenager, the 38-year-old would continue in the analysis department with Real Madrid.
Leeds United took on Labaien during 2017-18 as an assistant to now-Panama boss Thomas Christiansen. He remained when Christiansen was sacked, staying under the Whites’ new gaffer Paul Heckingbottom.
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Labaien’s colourful CV continued after Leeds with spells in the Middle East and Japan, before a return to Spain with Real Zaragoza. It was only when Alonso joined Real Madrid that Labaien joined Alonso’s staff.
Ismael Camenforte Lopez (fitness coach)
Camenforte, 41, is slightly different to Parrilla, Encinas and Labaien because he is unlikely to join as an assistant, but more so a fitness coach. He spent seven years from 2011 to 2018 as Barca B’s fitness man.
He joined New York City where he worked with David Villa in 2018, before joining Denmark’s National Team. He first started working with Alonso at Leverkusen and has remained alongside him ever since.
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