Italian Carlo Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid after a terrible season in which the white house was left without the Champions League, without the Copa del Rey, and almost certainly without the Spanish league title. He has been announced as the new coach of Brazil starting next month and until the 2026 World Cup.
This was reported in a statement by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).
How was Ancelotti’s announcement in Brazil?
“The best national team selection in the history of football will now be led by the most successful coach in the world. Carlo Ancelotti, synonymous with historic conquests, was announced this Monday by the president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues, as the new coach of the Brazilian national team. He will lead Brazil until the 2026 World Cup and will coach the team in the next two qualifying matches, against Ecuador and Paraguay, next month,” indicated the CBF on its social media.
As Brazil’s matches in the qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay are on June 6 and 10, respectively, Ancelotti will not coach Real Madrid in the Club World Cup in the United States and will have his last match with the team on May 25 in the league against Celta.
The CBF indicated that the current coach of the 15-time European champion will start his work next week when he meets with Rodrigo Caetano, general coordinator of the Men’s National Teams, and Juan, technical coordinator, to define the extensive list of players called up for the matches against Ecuador and Paraguay in the South American Qualifiers.
Ednaldo Rodrigues stated that Ancelotti’s signing “is more than a strategic decision.” “It is a statement to the world of our determination to reclaim the top spot on the podium. He is the best coach in history and now leads the best national team on the planet. Together, we will write new glorious chapters for Brazilian football,” he emphasized.
According to O Globo, Ancelotti will have a monthly salary of 900,000 dollars and will have access to a private jet to visit his family in Europe.
Ancelotti’s first selection
In this way, the Reggiolo coach will put an end to his successful second stage at the helm of the Madrid team, which he joined in 2021 and had a contract with until 2026.
After being between 2013 and 2015 and achieving four titles, including the tenth Champions League, he could not fulfill his third year of contract and was dismissed after a second year without major successes. However, Florentino Pérez rehired him for the position after Zinédine Zidane’s second farewell in 2021 and led one of the best times of the club with the conquest of eleven trophies, including the Champions League in 2022 and 2025, to now have a total of five after those achieved with AC Milan, and the leagues in 2022 and 2024, becoming the most decorated coach of the club with 15 trophies and the first coach to win the considered five major European championships.
But in the current season, Ancelotti was unable to repeat, and lost the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, as well as, unless there is an unexpected collapse from the Blaugrana, also the Spanish league after losing this Sunday in the Clásico by 4-3 and falling seven points behind. In the Champions League, the title defense ended this time in the quarter-finals, widely surpassed by English Arsenal FC with a 5-1 aggregate, losing both matches.
The Italian, who in his long career on the sidelines had not yet coached a national team, will face a new experience with one of the best national teams in the world, which had been looking for him for some time to restructure a Seleção that is not at its best level since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022, where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Croatia.
Ancelotti, who will turn 66 in June, will take over the position left by Dorival Jr., who had been appointed in January 2024.
It is expected that Xabi Alonso, who announced last Friday that he will not continue at the German Bayer Leverkusen, will take over as coach of Real Madrid starting from the Club World Cup that begins in mid-June.