Carlo Ancelotti Shares Details Of Planned Lahm And Alonso Send Off

Tomorrow will mark the end of an era, with two of this generation's finest footballers calling time on a pair of careers that will be near impossible for anyone to emulate.

Bayern Munich duo Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso will play their last games on Saturday at the Allianz Arena, where the Bundesliga champions take on SC Freiburg.

Lahm, with 516 appearances to his name for Die Roten, has amassed an incredible trophy haul during his 12 years as part of the Bayern first team.

The Bayern captain has lifted the Bundesliga title eight times, along with six DFB Pokals and the 2013 Champions League. He has long since established himself as one of the game's greatest ever full-backs and also memorably captained Germany to the 2014 World Cup, in Brazil.

Alonso, meanwhile, may only have half the league title winner's medals that Lahm has (three with Bayern and one with Real Madrid) but the Spanish midfielder has double the Champions League winner's medals and an extra two European Championships to accompany his 2010 World Cup success with Spain.

In short, the pair are stupidly successful. And tomorrow, their manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed, they will be given a fitting send off at the Allianz Arena.

Speaking at a news conference today, Ancelotti said, "The last training session with Philipp and Xabi Alonso was very emotional. I'm proud to be able to have coached these players.

"They play and will be replaced shortly before the end, so that they can be celebrated.

Both Lahm and Alonso will be given vociferous ovations from the 60,000+ Bavarians who will be packed into the Allianz Arena, tomorrow afternoon to witness the end of the road for two of the all time greats.

For the fifth successive season, Bayern will also celebrate a Bundesliga title victory, following the final whistle, the club's first under Carlo Ancelotti.

So with a combined 12 league titles, three Champions Leagues, eight domestic cups, two World Cups and two European Championships and 227 international caps between them, it'll be interesting to see who tries to fill the boots of Lahm and Alonso over the next decade. If anyone can even come close, that is.

(H/T Goal)

Topics: Football, Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso, Bayern Munich

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

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