Interest in Xhaka from Chelsea took Sunderland by surprise initially and came directly from manager Xabi Alonso, who made Xhaka a key player within his Bayer Leverkusen team that stunned Bayern Munich to win the Bundesliga in 2024 during an unbeaten domestic season in which they also reached the Europa League.
To provide well-rounded coverage and a breadth of insight across various events, we rely on contributions from several staff writers, each bringing their own area of expertise to our publication.
