The unstoppable Carlo Ancelotti
Carlo Ancelotti collected his eighth title with Real Madrid in the club’s UEFA Super Cup victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Carlo Ancelotti already has 23 titles as a coach and holds several records. At Real Madrid, only a select few take their career to another level. With the UEFA Super Cup win in Helsinki, the Italian passes Del Bosque and equals Molowny as the third most successful coach in the history of the club. At Madrid, Carletto has won eight trophies: two European Cups, one league, one Cup del Rey, a Club World Cup, two European Super Cups and one Spanish Super Cup. Only Miguel Muñoz, with 14 titles, and Zidane, with 11, have amassed more during their time in the Bernabéu dugout.
Of all of them, Ancelotti is the one who needs the fewest games to win a title. He wins a trophy every 22 games in charge. This season he has 61 games ahead of him to win another five more potential titles and improve his success rate. Miguel Muñoz needed 43 games to lift each trophy, although at that time he did not have the wild card of the Super Cups to feed his record. Zidane won one every 24 games.
In touching distance of Madrid legends
Ancelotti is preparing for his fourth season as Madrid manager after having led the club in 176 official matches. He is the seventh longest in charge, although he will soon surpass Mourinho (178 appearances) and Molowny (183) and will finish the season as the fourth with the most appearances (he can reach 237 and will reach minimum at 224) after surpassing Beenhakker (197) and surpassing the 200 bar. Only three Real Madrid legends have crossed the 200-game record: Muñoz (605 games), Zidane (263) and Del Bosque (246).
Madrid aiming for back-to-back league titles
The Italian faces the challenge of retaining the league title this season, something that Madrid have not achieved since 2006-07 (Capello) and 2007-08 (Schuster). No Madrid coach has won back-to-back league titles since Beenhakker (three in a row from 1986-87 to 1988-89). Less than 12 hours after winning his last title, Carletto spoke on his social media and showed his hunger for the upcoming season: “Happy to win the European Super Cup again! Now we are going to give everything in a season full of challenges”.
Ancelotti’s European success
Ancelotti was, until a few months ago, the only coach who had won the title in four of the five major European leagues. He was missing the Spanish title, one he could not win in his first two seasons in his first spell at the club. But Madrid’s 35th LaLiga title was secured under Ancelotti, with the Italian winning a trophy in each of Europe’s big five leagues. Serie A with Milan, Premier League with Chelsea, Ligue 1 with PSG, Bundesliga with Bayern and LaLiga with Madrid.
Ancelotti was instrumental in Madrid winning their 14th Champions League in May. He became the only coach with four European Cups and one that will be remembered forever for the three comebacks against PSG, Chelsea and City that took his Madrid side to the final in Paris.