Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso has confirmed he will remain with his current club beyond the end of this season.

Liverpool and Bayern Munich had both been chasing Alonso as their top managerial targets ahead of the departures of Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel this summer, but it emerged on Thursday that Alonso had rejected the advances of both teams.

Speaking to the media 24 hours later, Alonso confirmed his decision to continue his journey with Bayer.

“It’s been a season with a lot of speculation about my future,” he began. “I wanted to use the international break to reflect and take a decision.

“Last week, I had a meeting with Simon [Rolfes] and Fernando [Carro] when I informed them of my decision to continue being coach of Bayer Leverkusen.

“For sure, all the decisions, you need to analyse well. I try to take the right ones. I try to take ones that I feel come in a natural way, and at this moment, I feel that this is the right place for me to be, to develop as a coach – I am a young coach, but I have to feel it, and right now I feel that this is the right place.”

“It wouldn’t be correct of me to talk about other clubs when they are in this situation,” Alonso said when asked directly about interest from Liverpool and Bayern. “For sure, they are clubs I have a strong link [with]. I played there, I respect them, but it’s not correct for me to talk about them right now.”

Alonso, whose Bayer contract is due to run until 2026, continues to be linked with a potential move to another former employer, Real Madrid, in 2025 if Carlo Ancelotti leaves the Santiago Bernabeu.

“We’re not trying to speculate about the future, we have speculated enough!” Alonso laughed when asked about his contract situation. “But for sure, what I want is that I enjoy where I am and right now I am enjoying here in Leverkusen.”

As for Bayern and Liverpool, both clubs have long been working on identifying possible alternative targets and will now ramp up their chases of other managers ahead of a summer which will also see Barcelona hunt for a new boss.

Sporting CP’s Ruben Amorim has been heavily linked with Liverpool, while Brighton & Hove Albion’s Roberto De Zerbi has been touted as a target for both clubs.