Carlo Ancelotti caught in crossfire of Real Madrid and Brazil machinations
You may have heard that Carlo Ancelotti will be the next manager of Brazil. You may have heard that if you have been listening to the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, anyway; if you have been listening to Carlo Ancelotti or Real Madrid, on the other hand, chances are you haven’t heard a thing. And that may be the most telling portrait of the way the pursuit of him has played out: no longawaited announcement of his arrival. No arrival, either.
On 5 July, the CBF president, Ednaldo Rodrigues, named the Italian as the Brazil coach from 2024. Since then there has been silence. Ancelotti has said nothing, Madrid have said nothing and the CBF has said nothing, not officially. Even Rodrigues hadn’t said much at the time: a single word slipped in like an afterthought or an accident that was entirely deliberate, confirming an open secret and clarifying the one remaining doubt: a date.
Rodrigues was presenting Fernando Diniz as Brazil’s second interim manager since the World Cup when he noted that one of the things that made Diniz the ideal candidate was that “his approach is similar to the coach who will take over from the Copa América: Ancelotti”. And there it was: done. A little late, maybe, but everything had fallen into place. Diniz replaces Ramon Menezes, who had occupied the role on a temporary basis while a successor to Tite was sought, and will stay until next summer when Ancelotti’s contract at the Santiago Bernabéu expires.
Only it is not quite that simple, and not just because Ancelotti and Diniz are not the same. Although there is a commitment from confederation and coach, there is no contract signed – Fifa regulations make that impossible until January – and this is not the way they wanted it. Brazil had hoped, even expected, to have Ancelotti already – there were moments when he thought so, too – but they will have to wait almost 12 months and a lot can happen in a year.
Brazil had first approached Ancelotti last year about taking over for the 2026 World Cup. Advised by Kaká, who worked with Ancelotti at Milan, they saw in him the perfect candidate with the gravitas to front a break with tradition and all that implies, as well as the intense pressure that comes with the job. He had won it all and, as Rodrigues puts it: “All the players who have played under him miss him and those who have not want to.” Cafu, too, had worked with him; Vinícius Júnior, Rodrygo and Éder Militão do now. “The relationship is very, very good, like father and son,” Militão told Globo recently.
The 64-year-old Ancelotti, who signed a three-year deal in 2021, had initially intended to retire at the end of this spell at Madrid. He had not expected to go back to the club at all but a chance conversation in which the idea of a return was thrown in half-joking in response to Madrid’s chief executive lamenting how hard it was to find a coach led to a kind of end-of-career gift. He had not expected the Brazil opportunity either, but this is even better, ending with the two most emblematic football teams on Earth, one after the other.
Ancelotti had turned down the opportunity to lead Croatia at the 2018 World Cup, in part because it didn’t feel right so soon after saying no to Italy, but that proposal saw an idea form. The more he thought about it, the more he liked it, convinced he couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass by. Having begun as assistant to Italy’s Arrigo Sacchi, accompanying him at USA 94, managing at a World Cup would close the circle beautifully. And with Brazil, no less.
The preferred date moved forward after Tite’s departure and Ancelotti said yes. There was just one thing: he had a contract at Madrid. He wasn’t going to unilaterally break that. Real, on the other hand, might do. If Ancelotti was not going to fight his way out – still less once Brazil assured him that they would wait – getting sacked, an occupational reality he long assimilated, could now be seen less as a threat than a solution. He would like to be allowed to join Brazil, but if he wasn’t, what’s the worst that could happen? That he coaches the best team in the world.
Either way, time would take care of it. It just had to be handled right. “He always joked with us; he told us he was already there, but we didn’t want to get into it too much because it’s a delicate issue,” Militão said.
Conversations were held by the CBF with Madrid. Ancelotti, though, largely held his counsel, which is not easy when you are this exposed. “I’m not going to talk about my future any more,” he said in early April. The day before he had, admitting publicly for the first time: “If it’s true that a national team like Brazil want me, I like that a lot and it makes me happy.” The word he used was ilusión, bringing together ideas of enthusiasm, hope, even a dream.
Pressure had been applied, if only gently and possibly ill-advisedly, and Ancelotti immediately stepped back a bit. He repeatedly referred to his contract, responsibility left in the hands of Madrid, even as the questioning about his future was relentless. There were occasional reminders of what he had achieved, for internal and external consumption. A fortnight later he insisted: “I will be here next season, respecting my contract without doubt.” Asked whether he felt the president, Florentino Pérez, wanted him to continue, he replied: “Yes, I think so, because he has always been very affectionate with me and still is.”
After the Copa del Rey final, won by Madrid, Pérez spoke for the first and last time. “I don’t want to hear any more about it,” he said. “Ancelotti has a contract and we’re happy.”
Although alternatives passed Madrid by, credible candidates to take over missed, with the team relinquishing the league early and heavily defeated in the Champions League, the possibility of a sacking never went away and Rodrigues clung to that hope. Under pressure in Brazil, he remained insistent; more than was comfortable for Ancelotti. If he hoped to annoy Pérez into pushing his coach out, he failed. He might even have achieved the opposite.
As late as June Rodrigues was still insisting: “The plan A is the one you know: Ancelotti. And as they say in boxing, I am still not throwing in the towel.” A few days later, he said he had asked Luis Rubiales, the president of the Spanish federation, to “ask Florentino to liberate Carlo”, but it wasn’t happening. When at last the CBF president announced Diniz until summer 2024 and Ancelotti thereafter it was an admission of defeat, but a victory too. He had, he was telling everyone, got his man – if not yet, and even if his man wasn’t saying so.
When you announce you’re going you’ve already gone, or so they say. Setting a deadline risks that deadline not being met. And so Ancelotti carried on as he always did. For now it is best to pretend Brazil aren’t there and for Brazil to pretend that he is not either. Diniz insists he will work with “total freedom”. Ancelotti was invited to have someone of his trust involved over the next year but decided against it. Kaká is there anyway and Ancelotti’s focus must be Madrid, the optics right.
Attention cannot be divided and, perhaps more important, cannot appear to be divided: perception matters. Ancelotti remains unperturbed, which was always one of his great strengths. Lose and the accusations are inevitable: your mind is on Brazil. Lose and the consequences may be too.
But Ancelotti, who not so much runs the gauntlet as glides through it, knows that is forever so. He could be sacked? And? At the clubs he has managed, that’s always the way, and then there was no one waiting for him, still less Brazil. Parma, Bayern Munich and Napoli sacked him; Juventus sacked him at half-time when they still had a chance of winning the league, Chelsea within a year of winning the Double. As for Madrid, they sacked him less than 12 months after winning the 10th European Cup that had become their obsession, so he came back six years later and won it again.
He knew they could have sacked him last season, having collected the Copa del Rey to complete another extraordinary collection: every club title taken in 14 months. If they had, Ancelotti would have been announced as Brazil manager by now. And officially this time.