Carlo Ancelotti – The master among coaches!
Carlo Ancelotti is the coach with the most finals in the history of the Champions League (along with ECC). The Italian will appear on June 1 at “Wembley” for the sixth time in the great match. With four each are Pep Guardiola, Marcello Lippi, Sir Alex Ferguson, and Miguel Munoz. “Real” will participate in the final for the 18th time, which happens to the club for the sixth time in the last 11 seasons. So Carlito will fight for his fifth Champions League title and respectively the fifteenth for Real Madrid.
Carlo Ancelotti can be called the undisputed lord among coaches.
He is the first and only coach in the world with titles in the five major championships in Europe – Spain, England, Italy, France, and Germany. The Italian became a champion with Real Madrid in La Liga (2021/22) and also in Serie A with Milan (2003/04), in the Premier League with Chelsea (2009/10), in Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain (2012/13) and in the Bundesliga with Bayern (Munich) (2016/17).
Balanced, calm, and respected- These are just some of the characteristics describing Carlo Ancelotti.
It is known about Don Carlo that he is among the most beloved coaches in the world of football. The most successful – from Sir Alex Ferguson to Jose Mourinho, as well as the footballers he has worked with over all these years, speak with respect about him. The Italian tactician can easily be placed at the top of the ranking for the greatest in the profession and has the status of unattainable.
The 62-year-old coach of “Real” has long been subscribed to the trophies, being №1 by titles in the Champions League, after leading the “white ballet” to the 14th triumph, two of which are his work. He has two more with “Milan”, as many as he won as a player under the guidance of Arrigo Sacchi. On June 1, 2024, he has a chance to climb another step on the ladder of magnificence, winning another title in the Champions League.
However, the path to Ancelotti’s greatness was long and thorny.
In the mid-90s Carlo is at the helm of Reggiana, and at the beginning of the 1995/96 season, he falls into the trap of seven matches without a victory in Serie “B”. In today’s crazy times, this is like a signed death sentence for any young coach (then Ancelotti is 36), but the favorite of Arrigo Sacchi not only survives but uses the club from Reggio Emilia as a springboard to the top.“
Then Carlo Ancelotti was hanging by a thread – says the former Russian striker of Reggiana Igor Simutenkov, now an assistant coach at the championship Zenit. – The results were against him and the press was putting pressure on the club owner to fire him. But then Ancelotti gathered us in the locker room and without any hysteria told us something like: “If you believe me, then continue to pursue our common cause and we will get out of this situation. We believed him and at the end of the season we entered Serie A.”
Even three decades ago, Ancelotti hinted to the football world that he had outpaced his time and employed tactics that weren’t very popular before the big commercialization of the game.
Every Thursday, Carlo leads the team for dinner, often accompanied by their spouses and children. His goal is clear – a family team. He treats his players with understanding for their problems off the field and helps them with advice. And acquaintances claim that this style of communication hasn’t changed to this day.
They describe conversations with him as so natural and relaxed that “it’s as if you’re by the barbecue with an old friend and a glass of wine in hand.”
Since the mid-90s when he began his career in Reggio Emilia, he has traversed an eternity and become a living legend of coaching. But he continues to be the same reasonable human being and pleasant conversationalist.
However, the blows of fate were not few. And there were hardships even in his days as a footballer.
Yes, he won many trophies, but an injury deprived him of the world title with the “azzurri” in 1982. In 1994, the ambitious assistant coach Ancelotti was in Arrigo Sacchi’s staff when Italy painfully lost to Brazil in the final of the World Cup in the USA after penalties. Do you remember Roberto Baggio’s tears? At Reggiana, Carletto had to be dismissed from the team after just seven rounds, and at Juventus, he finished second in the championship twice in a row and was called “eternally second.”
Even in Milan, where his true greatness began, there were awful moments, like the final in 2005 against Liverpool in the Champions League. Leading 3-0 at halftime and then losing after extra time and penalties is a tragedy that would break many. But just two years later, Carlo had his moment and lifted the cup against the same Liverpool in Athens.
Triumphs followed one after another, and Ancelotti remained unchanged.
And logically, the question arises – how does such a good-natured and down-to-earth person reap and continue to reap successes in often hysterical football places like Turin, Milan, London, Paris, Munich, Madrid?
Here’s the answer from Milan legend Alessandro Costacurta:
“The main secret of Carlo? It’s clear that he knows football inside and out. Besides, he’s a great psychologist and brilliant diplomat. Carlo is always ready to listen to the president or a player, nod and pretend to agree with his interlocutor. The latter leaves satisfied, thinking he has convinced Carlo that he’s right and therefore will do what he has advised. But after such conversations, Ancelotti only does what he deems necessary. Yet he manages to turn everything so elegantly that others start to think that everything was their merit;
In the end, everyone is happy. Carlo is simply a genius!”
Perhaps Ancelotti’s greatness truly lies in the fact that he knows how to extinguish the fire of the crazy present reality with his calmness, analytical thinking, and wisdom. He enjoys a stable nervous system, few in football can boast of. And with it, he patiently awaits his glorious moments, knowing that the best is yet to come.
Carlo fell painfully more than once, but it only made him stronger. And he never lost ground – neither on days of defeat nor on days of triumph.
His fantastic ability to exude confidence and tranquility is passed on to the players. And some of the game’s superstars – present and future – have a lot to say about the famous Italian. Like how he eats his ice cream with childlike joy and goes to his room to take a nap, as in those moments of bliss, time stops for him. They say you don’t need to spend much time with the Italian coach to understand how this calm and kind lover of food and worldly pleasures manages to nod in agreement with billionaire owners and millionaire players, only to do what he thinks is necessary afterward.
The same Simutenkov, the former Reggiana striker, assures that Carletto hasn’t changed at all since their time in Reggio Emilia. A few years ago, they met quite by chance and spoke as if it were one of those family Thursdays in the 90s.
To remain yourself throughout your life, to stand firmly on the ground, and to love your profession
Perhaps this is the simple but at the same time most important secret of Ancelotti’s success. Carlo himself says he will work as long as his passion for football burns. Then he will retire from the big stage to devote himself to the title of “grandfather,” of which he is so proud. Imagine this picture – Grandpa Carlo, surrounded by grandchildren, who enthusiastically explain something to him, and he nods with his white-haired head. These will be times when his interlocutors will impose their will.
But for now, his conversations are still with football billionaire presidents and millionaire players, who just think they have convinced him of their rightness.
Read more about the latest football news.
