Carlo Ancelotti, this Saturday in the celebration of the League together with Vinicius, Militão, Alaba and Rodrygo.
“If Madrid is happy, I'm still happy.
If Madrid is not happy, I thank them for the time I have spent here”, Carlo Ancelotti commented relaxed a month ago about the possibility of continuing at the Bernabéu.
The Italian was never a person of conflict, but, on the verge of turning 63, he exhibits even more of that non-dramatic distance of veteran men as he savors a drink that he no longer intended to drink.
Or a cigar, like the one that was smoked this Saturday on the bus at the League celebration.
Because he did not imagine this return to Castellana.
A year ago he lived with Everton in the middle of the Premier table in a soft landing in his career, but Madrid, who had fired him in 2015 because he needed "a new boost", took him back to the general surprise to face the Post Zidane stage, post Sergio Ramos and without the signing of a forward that everyone believed essential.
A tricky assignment that ended up crowning him as the first coach to complete the re-poker of the five major championships (Spain, England, Germany, Italy and France) and the oldest coach to win the title with Real Madrid (the oldest were until now Fabio Capello and Luis Molowny, both 60).
Two decades ago, after two runners-up finishes with Juve and before lifting his first domestic tournament with Milan (2003-04), he began to earn a reputation as a "magnificent loser".
Today, his human script, pragmatic and without great makeup, still has things to say.
“What makes him different is the treatment with the player.
It goes to the front and that is important because others tell you one thing and from behind they do another ”, values Fernando Llorente (Pamplona, 37 years old), who coincided with him between September and December 2019 at Napoli, before he was replaced by Gennaro Gattuso, his "warrior" in the
Rossoneri
times .
“I stay close to him.
When I signed, I had been training on my own for several months and it caught my attention that the first day he came with me to the field.
We were just his son Davide, him and me.
We also went to dinner ”, recalls the Eibar striker, who only regrets his lack of skill in those months (four goals) in the plunger mission.
“It goes to the face;
others tell you one thing and behind the scenes they do another”
Fernando llorente
A way of directing that Ancelotti himself described as "soft power" in his testament
Calm Leadership
, a title that already said it all.
"He is a good person," summarizes Llorente.
A sentence that he repeats with the same words and as soon as Javi Martínez (Ayegui, Navarra; 33 years old) begins to speak, who had him at the helm of Bayern between July 2016 and September 2017, where they won the Bundesliga.
“Few coaches will know better than him how to treat a locker room.
Although, yes, he also has a lot of character.
You have to see him angry, he brings out the Italian genius.
But this is good.
We players cannot relax”, warns the player now from the Qatar Sports Club about this coach with a reputation as a gourmet and originally from a humble family of farmers and ranchers who got ahead making Parmesan cheese with 10 dairy cows.
Not players, people who play
In the midst of the daily grind of football, and more so in Madrid, his human discourse has surprised him at various times.
"The important thing is the relationship not with the players, but with the people who play football," he replied after winning the Spanish Super Cup.
An unusual distinction in the guts of a stadium.
Although that soft hand has also enclosed a paradox in some moments of his career, as he discovered at Chelsea, where he won the First in the first year.
They hired him, according to him, for his peace of mind and they fired him, precisely, for that reason when the results went awry.
He comes from a humble family that got by making Parmesan cheese with 10 dairy cows.
Coach of big clubs (Juve, Milan, PSG, Madrid or Bayern), no one has had to explain to him that in these types of companies tomorrow is today, so, as has been seen now in Chamartín, almost all his decisions have been guided by a conservative and pragmatic air.
He has coached in many countries – he reminded Xavi in one of those recurring style discussions – and he had learned that there is no one way to play.
In La Castellana, for example, he explained for months that he did not have the means to press up and that the best thing was to back down to look for the cons;
however, after the Cup elimination in Bilbao and the bad experience in Paris, he instantly backed down and sent lines up.
Benefited by a good-natured image that softens the media watchdog, he has handled the scene naturally.
He assumed the tactical mess of the classic (0-4) at the minute, he admitted with delight that he is dependent on Benzema and, when he had to talk about rocky situations, he fled forward.
He said that Bale was committed, that Hazard had returned and that he had not been bothered by Kroos's gestures when he was substituted against Chelsea because "the anger was with the coach and not with the person".
That difference again.
Then, when it came to making decisions, he made his own.
“Carlo is old school.
His son Davide unites him to this generation”
“I have always said that, for me, the best is Pep [Guardiola], but that the key in a coach is knowing how to get the best out of his players.
And I had my best level as a defender with Carlo, and perhaps also with Joaquín [Caparrós]”, emphasizes Javi Martínez.
“Not only physically, but because of that good vibe, that well-being and the desire to go to train”, abounds the former Athletic player, who defines Ancelotti as an “
old school
” coach.
“Davide, his son [and his assistant], is the one who unites him with the new generation.
Football has evolved a lot, every year there are many new things and that would perhaps be more difficult for Carlo, but with the help of Davide in video matters and rival analysis programs it is easier, ”explains the Navarrese.
The Ancelotti script is still valid in the elite and has already made it clear that, regardless of the duration of his "honeymoon" with Madrid, a club that is not at all favorable to putting down roots, he does not want to know anything yet about
retirement
from a national team.
Madrid tested him twice before signing him in 2013, he was crowned with the Tenth, but the League was elusive until now.
After lifting Serie A with Milan (03-04), the Premier with Chelsea (09-10), Ligue 1 with PSG (12-13) and the Bundesliga with Bayern (16-17), he already has the championship that was missing in a unique collection that speaks of two decades of validity on the bench.
“This year, work has been easy for me”, he settled a few days ago.
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