The Brazilian FA’s social media post says it all. Hiring Carlo Ancelotti to manage the Brazil national team is “more than a strategic move” — it’s also a “statement to the world.”
“He is the greatest coach in history and, now, he is at the helm of the greatest national team on the planet. Together we will write new glorious chapters in Brazilian football,” says Ednaldo Rodrigues, president of the Confederacao Brasileira de Futebol (CBF).
Way to dial the hype-and-expectation-meter to a Spinal Tap-sized 11. Then again, some hyperbole was probably necessary since this move — Ancelotti departing Real Madrid and going on to coach Brazil at the 2026 World Cup — had been telegraphed for a long, long time. (In fact, its origin story dates back more than three years.)
The fact that the CBF itself pre-empted Real Madrid’s announcement that he’d be leaving — or, indeed, Ancelotti’s turn to say gracias after a total of six seasons and 15 trophies — is also significant, given that he has another year on his contract with the Spanish club and, just as important, their season isn’t over. Sunday’s 4-3 defeat in the Clasico to Barcelona has all but handed the title to their archrivals, but there are three games left and arithmetic has yet to condemn them.
It was common knowledge both that Ancelotti was likely to leave at the end of a largely trophy-less campaign — their one piece of 2024-25 silverware, the European Super Cup, came in August — and that the prospect of ending his coaching career by taking charge of the most iconic and successful World Cup nation appealed to him. But there are norms and customs to how these things happen and the CBF, for whatever reason, went rogue.
Usually, it’s the current club that makes the announcement or it’s the coach (or player) himself, in concert with his current employers. Controlling the message matters, and these issues are often discussed in detail in negotiations. Not here. For whatever reason the biggest and most successful national team in the world appears to have big-footed the biggest and most successful club team in the world. (Not to mention, in the CBF’s own words, “the greatest coach in history” — and their newest employee — who may have wanted to make his farewells on his own terms.)
That’s done now, and we’ll see what the fallout, if any, will be. But it’s worth remembering that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, now in his third decade as club supremo, has a very long memory and that he pays the salaries of several Brazil stars such as Rodrygo, Éder Militão, Endrick and FIFA Best winner Vinícius Júnior.
As for Ancelotti, this isn’t a guy to hold grudges. Heck, he wasn’t vindictive the last time Real Madrid fired him, in 2015, just 10 months removed from leading them to their 10th Champions League crown and their first in more than a decade. He was hugely disappointed and hurt, but he sat tight, took a few other gigs and, six years later, returned after the shock resignation of his one-time assistant and protege, Zinedine Zidane. In four seasons he won another 11 trophies, including two more Champions League titles, a Spanish Cup and two Liga crowns and celebrated like this.
This is a guy who loves the game and enjoys life. That’s much easier to do when you’re not consumed by grudges and give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Ancelotti’s career arc in the game — from being a rigid, tactical obsessive under legendary Milan boss Arrigo Sacchi (with whom he won two European Cups as a player) to a pragmatic players’ coach later in life — is at the heart of his success. He can beat you with “Xs and Os,” but he knows too well that at the very highest level, when you have the very best players it’s best to let them do their thing and just keep them happy and motivated. From Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé, Ancelotti is the Galactico-whisperer.
Add to that the fact that he’s won more Champions League titles (five) than anyone and is the only person to have won each of Europe’s Big Five leagues as a coach, and you can understand what made Ednaldo Rodrigues and the CBF so obsessed with him. Countless Selecao stars of the past (Thiago Silva, Cafu, Marcelo, Kaka) and present (Vinícius, Eder Militao) were ready to vouch for him. His track record speaks for itself as does his ability to defuse tension and deal with media and fan pressure. Heck, he did it for six years at the biggest, most scrutinized club team in the world, he can now do it at the biggest, most scrutinized national team in the world.
The difference, perhaps, is that Real Madrid — if only by virtue of the fact that they can spend money to acquire talent — tend to have short down-cycles in their success, while Brazil are in serious need of a pick-me-up. They still produce more footballers by volume than any other nation, but their international record isn’t what it was — especially in the World Cup, which they last won in 2002. Since then, they’ve only progressed beyond the quarterfinals once and nobody wants to remember that occasion, because it resulted in the most humiliating day in Brazilian football history as they lost the 2014 semifinal 7-1 on home soil to Germany.
It’s the sort of run that breeds failure, toxicity and self-doubt — the two Copa America titles they won in 2007 and 2019 aren’t enough to break it — hence the bold step to break with 100 years of history and hand the country’s vast talent pool and institutional memory to a non-Brazilian coach. There’s a sizable chunk of Brazil’s 211.1 million-strong population that doesn’t remember them lifting a World Cup trophy. That has to change.
2:15
Echegaray: Vinicius Junior will be loving Ancelotti’s Brazil appointment
Luis Miguel Echegaray reacts to the news that Carlo Ancelotti will leave Real Madrid to take over the Brazilian national team.
As for Ancelotti, he has long said Real Madrid would be his last job in club football. After all, you can’t really top it, and he’s never hidden the fact that, at 65, for as much as he loves the game and the adrenaline it brings, he’s equally happy back home in the Italian countryside surrounded by cured meats or in his adopted hometown of Vancouver, with the wild salmon and the Pacific Ocean.
However, he’s also said he wouldn’t mind coaching a national team, and while his native Italy immediately sprang to many minds, well, the job is taken and in any case: an Italian guy coaching Italy to a World Cup title? Been there, done that.
A foreigner crossing the ocean to take on the complicated ecosystem of Brazilian football and guiding the green-and-gold to their record sixth World Cup in 2026? Now that hasn’t been done. If there’s one coach who could change that, it’s Ancelotti.
This post was originally published on this site