Sami Khedira is expected to join Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff at Real Madrid, a move that would put one of Mourinho’s former midfielders into his first senior coaching role. The 39-year-old, who retired from playing in 2021, is being lined up as part of the new staff at the Bernabeu after Mourinho was announced as Madrid’s head coach on Thursday.
The appeal is clear. Khedira worked with Mourinho during the coach’s first spell in charge between 2010 and 2013, and he knows the club from the inside after joining Madrid in 2010, making 161 appearances and spending five years there before leaving for Juventus in 2015. He also arrived with a pedigree that Madrid values: a La Liga title in 2012-13, two Copa del Rey wins and the Champions League in 2014, along with 77 caps for Germany and a World Cup win in 2014.
Mourinho’s conversations with Madrid and his representatives were built around bringing trusted people to the Bernabeu, and Khedira fits that brief. The Athletic reported that Mourinho wants someone who can link the club, the squad and the coaching staff, while also knowing Spanish football and Real Madrid. That helps explain why Khedira has emerged as the expected choice, even though Pepe, 43, who also played under Mourinho and spent a decade at Madrid, had been under consideration for the role.
Madrid have often turned to former players when filling coaching posts, with Alvaro Arbeloa and Zinedine Zidane both going through Castilla before moving on to the first team. Khedira would follow a similar path in spirit, but with one important difference: this would be his first senior coaching position since retirement, and it would begin under Mourinho rather than after years of apprenticeship. The remaining question is not whether Khedira fits the job, but when Madrid make the appointment official.
