After months of speculation and outright begging, Carlo Ancelotti is confirmed as the new Brazil coach and it might be what finally lets people recognise him as the greatest in history.
Because of his easy-going manner and humble shrugging off of praise with a smile, a joke and a raised eyebrow, it has been far too easy to ignore Ancelotti’s true standing within the sport. He doesn’t declare himself the ‘Special One,’ he has no style of football named after him, no books written about tactical innovations or legendary status at particular clubs. If you were asked to define Ancelottismo, you wouldn’t really know where to start, other than it usually proves successful, no matter where he happens to be.
What more does he have to do in order to get the credit that he deserves? This is the first man ever to win the title in all five major European Leagues. Nobody has won more editions of the Champions League, let alone done it twice with two different clubs. Yet if someone tries to compare him to Pep Guardiola, they will be laughed out of the discussion. What is tougher, to have an unlimited budget and seven years to build a team to your exact specifications and even then just scrape the Champions League victory once, or to keep changing and still come out on top more often than not?
If Ancelotti manages to win the 2024 Copa America or even the 2026 World Cup with Brazil, it will be very difficult then to keep laughing off suggestions he might just be on top of the pantheon of the world’s greatest coaches. Even then, despite seeing all the flops with far more talented individuals over the years, the old critics will still try to insist anyone could’ve won with this squad.
Perhaps the biggest problem for Ancelotti is that he believes in adapting to the players at your disposal rather than imposing his own vision on the team. This is why there is no Ancelottismo, no Ancelotti Ball, because that chameleon-like ability to reshape his tactics is his signature style.
He wasn’t always this way, of course. Famously Ancelotti hounded Gianfranco Zola out of Parma because the Magic Box didn’t fit in with the strict 4-4-2 formation he had been taught by Arrigo Sacchi, which was so in vogue at the time. It was at Milan where Carletto first began to realise he needed to get the best players on the pitch together, then work the shape around them. The Christmas Tree formation was a stroke of genius, allowing Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, Kaka, Manuel Rui Costa and Pippo Inzaghi or Andriy Shevchenko to play from the start in his 4-3-2-1 tactics.
If Ancelotti had been like any other coach, he’d have probably stuck to that for the rest of his career, but the humility to open up his mind and accept different approaches is what makes him stand out – and in turn why he never gets the credit that he deserves. At PSG, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, he can vary from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1, sometimes with a diamond midfield, but he does seem to draw the line at a three-man defence.
Brazil have not won the World Cup since 2002 and their only real piece of silverware in the last 16 years was the 2019 Copa America title. With rivals Argentina lifting both the continental and world trophies, the Seleçao are left feeling humiliated. This is why they needed Ancelotti, a man accustomed to working with the often instinctive Brazilian talents like Vinicius Junior, knowing when to give freedom and when to rein them into a wider tactical framework. It’s no wonder they crawled through the glass to get his signature.
If Ancelotti wins the 2026 World Cup with Brazil, who could still honestly rule him out of the running as the greatest coach in history?
Twitter: @SusyCampanale
Sorry but he is a traitor . He is going to help Brazil to win a 6th title after having turned down Italy a few times already . What happen to I want to coach everyday , I guess that doesn’t apply now .
he is so proud of himself great for italian football down we go
I can’t believe he went to a rival like Brazil.. Sorry Carlo but I hope you fail miserably..