Dante: I was surprised we signed Alonso

The Brazilian defender had no idea Bayern Munich were going to buy the midfielder but says his “incredible experience” will prove to be a massive boost

Bayern Munich defender Dante says he was surprised by the club’s signing of Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid.

The Bundesliga champions bought the midfielder this summer for a reported fee of €10 million and the former Spain international made his debut the following day in a 1-1 draw with Schalke.

Dante was caught off guard by the arrival of the 32-year-old, but says the ex-Liverpool man’s experience will help Bayern as they attempt to win the treble in 2014-15.

“With Mehdi Benatia I wasn’t surprised,” he told TZ. “But with Xabi Alonso it all happened incredibly fast and we knew nothing about it in advance.

“We are playing in three competitions and want to win all three, so we need a lot of players. I stand by my opinion – when players come with the quality of Xabi or Mehdi, it is always good.

“I’ve only trained with him a few times but in the game against Schalke you already saw that he is a great personality. Xabi has an incredible amount of experience and can help us right away.”

The centre-back added that Alonso will have to adapt quickly to the German culture of the club, revealing that even coach Pep Guardiola rarely speaks Spanish.

Dante continued: “We always try to speak German and Pep only speaks German. He tries to explain everything in German and I speak very little Spanish with him.

“I try to help Xabi and Pepe Reina and sometimes translate speeches for them. Those two are talking to each other in Spanish and that is normal, but the culture at Bayern is German.”

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