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After 450 games as an elite player in clubs (three seasons at Parma, eight at Rome and four at Milan), Carlo Ancelotti (Reggiolo, 1959) adds another 1,244 games on the bench. In total, 44 seasons (28 as a coach) breathing football. If there is a wise man in the history of this sport, it is undoubtedly Ancelotti, who on his return to Real Madrid he has definitively broken all records.
Last season Ancelotti went down in the history of Real Madrid for winning the double (League and Champions League). With a stroke of the pen he became first coach to win the five major European leagues (Spain, France, England, Italy and Germany) and also surpassed Bob Paisley and Zidane (both three European Cups) as coach with the most Champions League (he has four). With him in charge, Madrid wins a title every 24.5 games.
That dream season earned the Italian to collect several awards in a personal capacity, such as the one that UEFA awarded him as the Best Coach in Europe, thus acknowledging the importance of the risky decisions he made in the playoffs for the comebacks against PSG and City. He was also awarded for tuttosport and at Globe Soccer. Of course, Carlo Ancelotti has the recognition of this newspaper. The Italian is an AS Sports Award not only for what he did last season, but also for fully entering the history of Madrid, with which he has already won 8 titles. He only has ahead of him the 11 that Zidane won (he can surpass him this season, with five more titles at stake apart from the European Super Cup that he already has in his pocket) and the 14 of Miguel Muñoz (For that, Carletto will have to wait for the following exercises).
To these two milestones, being the only one to win the five major leagues and the first to win four European Cups, which place him as one of the best coaches in history, Ancelotti joins another very significant record. He finished last season becoming, with 618, the coach with the most victories of the 21st century, with the top leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France) and European and international competitions as a scale. After the first third of this season, he already has 634 wins on the bench, and behind him are illustrious figures such as Wenger (603), Mourinho (584), Guardiola (578) or Ferguson (491).
But not everything is done for Carlo Ancelotti. He still has challenges ahead. The main one, which is still open, is win the Sextet, something that only Guardiola could do with Barcelona in 2009 and Flick with Bayern the campaign interrupted by the pandemic. Beyond that circumstance and returning to Real Madrid, There is no coach who has managed to revalidate the League title in consecutive seasons since Beenhakker did with Madrid de la Quinta del Buitre (in the years 1987, 1988 and 1989).
Good old Ancelotti will end the season as the fourth coach with the most matches for the white entity (it could reach 237). Within four games he will reach the 200 mark (he has 196 with a spectacular balance of 44 victories, 73.5%). The 200 matches is a border that only three Real Madrid legends have crossed: Muñoz (605 matches), Zidane (263) and Del Bosque (246).
Time has proved Ancelotti right, who appeared before the media in June 2021 when he returned to Real Madrid against all odds. Far from paying tolls for the abrupt departure in his first stage, the Italian put his love for Madrid first, with which he feels hyper-identified. “I’m very happy to be here,” he said then. “I feel like this is my home. I am going to put all my energy to be able to do what we have already done in the past. I have very good memories of my last stage here. I think we are going to repeat something good in this experience “. And he hit the bull’s-eye.
For this, Ancelotti has had to reinvent himself. “Football has changed in recent years, now it is more aggressive and organized”, said then. “But at Madrid it’s always the same: offensive and spectacular football. It’s what the history of this club requires.” And if the history of Madrid requires something, it is also winning. With Ancelotti this team has found the perfect coach to do it. Carletto has entered the Olympus of the most successful entity…