Carlo Ancelotti, the lone DT king of the five major leagues in Europe

“Why did I come back? Because Real Madrid needed a coach, that’s what happened … For me it’s a very good dream to come back, but it wasn’t my decision. Yes, I enjoy it”.

Carlo Ancelotti’s response was from last week and caused laughter among journalists present at the press conference. It is also an example of the almost transparent personality of this 62-year-old coach who, with little thought of him for great matches, returned to Real Madrid to continue making history. And the big one: since this Saturday he is the only coach to have won the five most important leagues in Europe.

Again at nine with Real Madrid, a club where he was removed a year after winning the Champions League (the Tenth, in 2014) because they said he had trained little, according to questionable statistics, Ancelotti does not show anything resembling resentment. He said the possibility of a quick exit from a club was part of his job and in fact that experience has also lived on at Juventus, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Napoli.

Details, stumble upon a wonderful career. With the merengue team that he did not win the Spanish League, now, in exchange for almost no thought after two minor experiences at Napoli and Everton, Carletto he paid his debt. The first time he came to Madrid as a “peacemaker” (one of his recognized merits) after José Mourinho’s volcanic passage, he was not successfully accepted to win the most coveted Champions League. The second, replaced Zinedine Zidane, who became his field assistant and outstanding student.

Let’s examine: Ancelotti won the A series with Milan in 2004, the premier league with Chelsea in 2010, the Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2013, the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in 2017 and the League with Real Madrid in 2022.

But it hasn’t been changed by flashes since then or by those from now on. It should also be said that Ancelotti, a player, a smart midfielder and a natural leader, a coach on the pitch, he won two Champions Leagues with Arrigo Sacchi’s memorable Milan and played two World Cups (1986 and 1990) with Italy.

On your resume you can also write that you have included the reduced group of 7the coaches who won in Orejona as footballers and as coaches included Miguel Muñoz, Johan Cruyff, Giovanni Trapattoni, Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane.

His record of services is impressive but his recent experiences (Napoli and Everton) seem to be under the most demanding radars. It is, then, about the resurrection of one of the world’s winning coacheswith the particularity of keeping a low profile that should spread to some earning less and talking less about themselves.

Ancelotti’s is a brand: it’s called gentle leadership, as the book he wrote with Chris Brady and Mike Forde is called. The book, highly recommended, is not a biography because it puts the specific point on the leadership style that Carlo explains as follows: “A calm leadership approach may seem like a soft approach to some, perhaps even weak, but that’s not what it means to me, and certainly not to anyone who has played me or played with me. The kind of silence I say is a force. There is power and authority in being calm and measurable, in providing confidence and cool decisions, in using influence and persuasion, and in being professional in our approaches. “.

Christian Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sir Alex Ferguson, Paolo Maldini and David Beckham, among others, prove that calm leadership works and builds commitment to those they lead.

A fan of Robert De Niro and the film The Godfather, Ancelotti explained that one of his main tasks is to manage the expectations of club owners and prevent these harassments (the “noise of the president” ) from reaching the squad. That is not easy.

So he knows how to manage the whims of Silvio Berlusconi, Florentino Pérez, Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Roman Abramovichfor example, beyond their failures.

“I have learned that no system is more important than the president of the club. If Berlusconi wants to enter the locker room to tell us his jokes, I have to understand that this is his locker room”he explains in the book.

He also knows how to tame the egos of Cristiano, Zlatan, Rivaldo and many others. It is described as “the man who whispers to the divas” and it is said of him that he had “biblical patience.” Everything seems real.

They said he was not angry with his players, and he admitted he did not do so after his Milan disaster in 2005, in Istanbul, when Liverpool came back from 0-3 in six minutes and then won. in the Champions League final on penalties ..

But there are things he does not forgive. “Work ethic” is one of his obsessions. It also does not accept that a coach or player has not learned the language of the country in which he or she is playing for more than six months.

Inside the locker room he seemed unbeatable and in terms of tactics, even though he always preferred the 4-4-2 where Sacchi’s Milan shone, he was pragmatic in adapting to the players. One of his great successes was the change of position of Andrea Pirlo, a hurdle who played little in that position and became one of the best central midfielders in the world since the change in position. First to Milan, then to Juventus and the Italian national team.

Humbly, Ancelotti says: “I owe everything to Zidane”. And he said: “Zidane at Juventus changed my idea of ​​football. In Parma I refused to sign Roberto Baggio because I was betting on a football that locked players in pre-established positions and did not provide for a midfielder like Baggio With Zidane I did the opposite process: I built the team around the champion, I made him a specialized suit.

Today he declared a 4-3-3 and among the victories at his new Real Madrid, Vinicius ’present stands out. They said Ancelotti called the Brazilian on his vacation to reassure him that he was counting on him even if Kylian Mbappé came to the team, something the media repeats every day. Vinicius became the great revelation of the new championwho also converted one of the goals against Manchester City, in the first leg semifinals of the current Champions League.

Anyway, Carletto He asserts that he can contribute more “defensively, which is organization” than in the offensive phase, which is “talent and creativity”. And with extreme modesty about his qualities as a footballer, he said of Luka Modric’s magical clearance for Rodrygo’s goal against Chelsea that gave life to the team in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League: “For that pass, I have nothing to say to Modric and I also can’t point out to Benzema where to get into the penalty spot. They teach me. “

It’s not quite like that, according to Roberto Martínez (Spanish coach of the Belgium team) “Ancelotti is in a position to look at any player and say‘ I did that ten times better than you ’”.

I may not say everything, but I have a lot to say. What is undoubtedly respected by footballers is his impressive track record, which now has a new title: the only king of the five major leagues.