AP:
CARLO ANCELOTTI is swapping Real Madrid for Brazil in one of the biggest moves in world football. The problem is that neither he nor Madrid want to talk about it.
As coaching switches go, they don’t come any bigger than this.
But when news broke Monday that Ancelotti was leaving the sport’s most successful and iconic club team to take charge of its most successful and iconic national team, there was an awkward silence.
Madrid chose to ignore the announcement by the Brazilian football federation and were still to publicly acknowledge it 24 hours later.
There was silence, too, from Ancelotti, who didn’t even provide a quote for his new employers when they published an official statement.
That left an uncomfortable vacuum until Ancelotti finally confirmed his departure during a scheduled news conference yesterday, which he only took part in because he was supposed to preview Madrid’s upcoming match against Mallorca.
“If I didn’t have this news conference today it would have been a fantastic day. But in this news conference I have to explain things that I don’t want to explain,” the Italian coach said.
Becoming coach of record five-time world champions Brazil should be among the proudest moments of Ancelotti’s career. He is the first foreign coach to take charge of the team of Pele, Ronaldo, and Neymarm, and the most iconic yellow jersey in football.
But even for Ancelotti — who is famed for his cool demeanor on the sideline, cigar smoking, and the odd raised eyebrow — his reaction has been understated.
The 65-year-old Ancelotti — who has won a record five Champions League titles as a coach — begins his new job later this month with a view to leading Brazil to next year’s World Cup.
With three more rounds of the Spanish season to go, Ancelotti said he did not want “anybody asking me about other things because I respect this jersey a lot, and I want to respect it until the last day”.
The announcement came after Madrid’s 4-3 loss to Barcelona over the weekend all but confirmed that the defending Spanish champions would surrender their league title.
Barcelona need just two points to be crowned champions and can complete the job against Espanyol tomorrow.
Ancelotti’s exit has been long-trailed, with departing Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso widely expected to replace him. So news of the deal will not have come as a surprise to Madrid, who were involved in the negotiations to release Ancelotti early from a contract that had another year to run.
But the club’s silence has been notable, with no messages of congratulations or thanks to a coach that won two Champions League titles and the Spanish title in his second spell at the club.
Ancelotti also coached Madrid from 2013-15, which saw him win another Champions League.
Despite Ancelotti’s future being confirmed, Madrid have not been pushed into responding with an announcement of succession plans.
“Real Madrid will release the statement when they want. There’s no problem whatsoever. They’ll do it at the appropriate time for Real Madridand there’s nothing further to add,” Ancelotti said.
While Madrid are doing things in their own time, Brazil were coming under increasing pressure to announce a successor to Dorival Júnior, who was fired in March after a humbling 4-1 loss to bitter rivals Argentina in Buenos Aires.
The Brazilian federation enlisted the help of Brazilian businessman Diego Fernandes, a CEO of a banking firm, to facilitate negotiations over arguably the best active coach in football.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has previously been linked with the job but signed a contract extension with the Premier League club this season.
The appointment of Ancelotti is a major coup for a country that hasn’t lifted the World Cup since 2002 and is desperate to return to the summit of the sport next year.
By securing Ancelotti this month, it means that he can get to work straight away with World Cup qualifying matches against Ecuador and Paraguay coming up in June.
It was possible that Ancelotti could have stayed on to lead Madrid at the expanded Club World Cup in the United States in June and July. That would have served as a fitting parting, with a chance for him to add to his decorated career.
Instead, Ancelotti’s focus will be on Brazil’s attempts to challenge Argentina, who were crowned world champions in 2022.