REAL MADRID
Brazil in surprise link with Real Madrid’s Ancelotti
Local media outlet UOL has reported that the CBF contacted the Madrid coach in October and that it would be willing to wait for him at the end of this season.
Twenty years without winning the World Cup feels like an eternity for a team like Brazil, who have the most titles with five, ahead of Italy and Germany (both with four). The defeat in the quarterfinals against Croatia in a penalty shootout has caused a small sporting earthquake in the country, and after Tite announced that he would not continue in charge of the canarinha, speculation about his successor is rife.
The most recent story doing the rounds comes from UOL, and it’s somewhat of a surprise, putting Carlo Ancelotti among the serious candidates.
Ancelotti for Brazil?
UOL reports that the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) firmly believes that the best option for Tite’s position is an internationally renowned coach, even a foreign national. The two names that have been put on the table are those of Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti. The Guardiola thing is a longing that comes from afar. But that possibility has vanished, at least in the short term, as the Catalan renewed his contract with Manchester City in November, which binds him to the sky blue club until June 2025.
Ancelotti, according to UOL, now appears as a strong alternative. The good performances he is getting from Vinicius, Rodrygo and Militao have not gone unnoticed, the three players whom the Italian has moulded according to his footballing ideas with great success. Tite himself recognized the work he had done with Vinicius.
“Ancelotti has played a large part in the evolution of Vinicius,” he said before the Qatar tournament. “In this sense, many times I feel a bit like a thief of the work that other technicians do.”
UOL says that the CBF consulted Ancelotti for the first time about his availability to accept the position back in October and that in the proposal it was stated that Brazil could wait until June 2023 for the Italian. Ancelotti has a contract with Real Madrid until 2024 and he has already commented on occasion that after his second spell in the Spanish capital it is very likely that he will retire from the bench.
“After Real Madrid, yes, I will probably retire,” said the winner of four Champions Leagues as a coach in a recent Prime Video interview.
“If the club wants me here for ten years, I will coach for ten years,” Carlo continued. “But later I would like to be with my grandchildren and go on vacation with my wife. There are so many things you give up when you choose this profession...
“I’ve never been to Australia; I have never been to Rio de Janeiro. I would like to visit my sister more often. Unfortunately, today I can’t do it, so the day I retire, I will have all these things to do.”
Those words would suggest that Brazil will have to find another alternative. But as we know, anything can happen in football.