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Munich, 2017, the brow sits: Carlo Ancelotti
Photo: Acero/ imago/Alterphotos
Carlo Ancelotti fiddled with his jacket for what seemed like an eternity before handing it to a Real Madrid employee – it just takes longer for a grand seigneur like him.
He then tried to pull the champions' white t-shirt over his shirt, tank top and tie, but his players had waited enough: they grabbed him with his t-shirt half pulled on and threw him through the air at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.
Real celebrated their 35th Spanish championship and Ancelotti, 62, set a historic record that no colleague is likely to equal for the foreseeable future: he is now the first coach to have won all five leagues commonly referred to as 'the big ones'.
Italy, England, France, Germany, Spain.
AC Milan 2004, Chelsea 2010, Paris Saint-Germain 2013, Bayern Munich 2017. Real Madrid 2022.
Enormous adaptability and a lot of brains made it possible.
Ancelotti always found his way, but never pushed himself into the center of attention - that's why he always remained employable.
Even in the hour of his continental royal flush, he kept it without a triumphant pose, quite cultivated even in the embrace of his son Davide, who is part of his coaching staff.
Only once did his eyes water: When he talked about how grateful he was that he was allowed to return last summer after a first term between 2013 and 2015: "I hadn't thought of it, really not."
He wasn't alone in that.
After layoffs in Munich, where he was not well spoken of afterwards, and Naples, he was hired by English Everton.
Actually not
Carletto-like
.
When the request came from Madrid, he had ended the season in the Premier League in tenth place in the table.
Now bow down to him again.
His clear squad analysis and his always relevant conclusions from it.
His infinite serenity, which takes all foam from the mouth even in such a hysterical environment as that of Real Madrid.
"Carlo the Great" is what the press is calling him again.
He started with a loser image
At club level he is the last survivor of his generation;
the last to coach big clubs in the 20th century.
After having worked as a midfielder for Milan, among others, and having assisted his mentor there Arrigo Sacchi with the Italian national team, he began his solo career in Parma in 1996.
Parma was a top club at the time, and Ancelotti finished runners-up with them.
Then he went to Juventus Turin: two more runners-up.
Hard to believe, but the pan-European record coach started with a loser image.
Perhaps that also sharpened humility.
Perhaps she comes from the origins in rural Emilia, where he helped his father milk the cows at an early age.
One thing is certain: Ancelotti already had enough self-irony as a player to let Terence Hill kick him off the pitch in »No one hits like Don Camillo«.
And decades later, as a three-time Champions League winner coach (AC Milan 2003 and 2007, Real Madrid 2014), still the modest dignity of making someone like "Killer-Kalle" Rummenigge cry.
That happened, as Rummenigge once said, when Ancelotti reacted to the dismissal he had just been told by Bayern with a hug: "All right, you're no longer my boss, but you'll remain my friend."
In a business that is often ultra-important, not taking yourself too seriously is something like Ancelotti's USP, his unique selling point.
This was always a good way to smile away the fits of the who's who of the alpha bosses.
The top bosses of his five championship titles: Berlusconi, Abramovich, Emir of Qatar, Uli Hoeneß, Florentino Pérez.
Even then, very few people in Madrid understood why the Real President fired him in 2015.
The maneuver led to a veritable uprising of the players.
After all, Ancelotti's gentlemanly appearance fits Real's traditional self-image just as much as his tendency to leave the stage to the professionals.
Vicente Del Bosque (2000, 2002), Ancelotti and Zinédine Zidane (2016 to 2018) - all Champions League titles in the current millennium won player understanders.
"Cabin management is more important than specialist knowledge," said long-serving captain Sergio Ramos, once defining the requirement profile for a Real coach.
Ancelotti fulfilled it better than ever this season.
Despite potentially explosive problems such as Gareth Bale or Eden Hazard, it has been a long time since a Real season has been so harmonious.
The Madrilenians have been in the lead since Matchday 3, the most critical moment coming after a 4-0 loss to Barcelona in March.
A lucky win with three penalties at Celta Vigo restored confidence in the next match, since then everything has been won in the league.
Yesterday's 4-0 win over Espanyol Barcelona meant the 35th championship in the club's history with just four games to go.
Not pretty, but gentle
Until it switched to heroic football mode, especially in the Champions League, Real showed elevated pragmatism.
Over long stretches of the season you defended unusually deep.
"Not very aesthetic," Ancelotti found himself, but it made sense not to burn the decisive offensive players Luka Modrić, 36, Toni Kroos, 32, and Karim Benzema, 34, with extreme pressing that was not appropriate for their age.
In the decisive phase of the season, Real now seems surprisingly fit.
Ancelotti is certainly more of a project manager than a project developer;
It is probably not for nothing that he has only won one championship with each of his clubs.
But that doesn't mean that he didn't improve some players enormously.
At Milan, it was Ancelotti who handed reservist Andrea Pirlo the role of playmaker in front of defence.
In his first real time he invented the ideal use for the since epochal Modrić.
And this season everyone is wondering: what did he do to Vinícius?
The young, highly talented, but previously flighty dribbler suddenly makes the right decisions that were often so difficult for him before.
While Benzema identified him as an enemy in his own team last season ("He's playing against us," he said to Ferland Mendy during a game in Mönchengladbach), together they now form one of the best strike duos in Europe.
They refined a number of tough games and together they have scored 60 goals and provided 32 assists in all competitions this season.
Your understanding is one of those intangible things that just kind of seems to happen.
But a coach has to let that happen.
Ancelotti says that he gave Vinícius a few things to draw in more often, to finish faster.
He would never claim any other merits for himself.
Not him.
'I've done nothing but give him confidence.
I'm not a magician."
»On City with a roar«
On Saturday evening, on the way to Real's traditional celebration at the Cibeles fountain, Ancelotti showed a little Brazilian dance with Vinícius, who was a good 40 years younger.
Once in front of the fans, he closed his master's speech with: "A por el City", on City with a roar.
On Wednesday Real have to catch up against the English from Manchester a 3: 4 from the football orgy of the first leg in order to reach the Champions League final.
There the coach, who is not a magician, could then crown himself as the sole record holder for titles in the most important European cup.
