Carlo Ancelotti is ready to return to Napoli with Real Madrid in the Champions League, where he once highlighted four interesting players he hoped would land in the Campania capital.
The 64-year-old Italian coach spent 18 months with the Partenopei from July 2018 to December 2019, averaging 1.82 points per match across his 73 games in charge.
Ancelotti was shown the door by Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis after a nine-game winless run was broken by victory over Genk in the Champions League.
As highlighted by Corriere dello Sport, during his time in charge of Napoli, Ancelotti had identified four players he hoped would’ve joined him at the club, none of whom arrived.
The first of these was Federico Valverde, who was already starting to emerge at Real Madrid. The second was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was a target of the Italian coach before he ultimately returned to Milan.
Another player highlighted by Ancelotti was Josip Ilic, who had already been impressing at Atalanta. Finally, the now-Real Madrid coach was keen to pick up Theo Hernandez before he made the jump to Milan.