HT Kick Off: What Ancelotti’s move tells us
If Brazil can do it, so can any other country. Here's why Dhiman feels that Ancelotti's appointment ends the debate about foreign coaches for national teams.
With a “thousand thanks”, Carlo Ancelotti has taken a career that looked to be ending at Everton but was revived spectacularly at Real Madrid to where he has never gone. It would have been okay if he had decided to wind down at 65 –five Champions League trophies, winning all of Europe’s top five leagues, 15 trophies with Real Madrid alone across two spells and a successful career as a player would have been reason enough — but Ancelotti is not going gently into the night.
Not after a season without silverware and four defeats to Barcelona (more on that, anon). Injuries meant the World Cup stayed unfinished business. Desperate, Brazil have given him another chance. One where, no doubt, he will have help from Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Endrick and Eder Militao.
Samindra Kunti does not like the word desperate, but settles for “five minutes to midnight.” Kunti is Belgian but his interest in football in Brazil is so deep that he learnt Portuguese listening to live match commentary (and has improved on it as I found out during the 2022 World Cup) and has written an excellent book retracing the 1970 World Cup campaign. After Pele died, Kunti was invited to The Guardian’s football podcast as an eminent voice on the sport that is a way of life in Brazil. He was in Asunción to report on the FIFA Congress when I reached out to understand why Brazil too had to go foreign.
“After Qatar, Brazil pretty much wasted nearly three years. The defeat to Argentina (4-1 in the World Cup qualifier in March) was more humiliating than the 7-1 against Germany,” he said. “Defeat in the World Cup semi-final was due to an emotional collapse after Germany scored a bunch soon after kick-off. In the qualifier, they were outplayed from start to finish.”
Lacking in self-esteem
Ergo, a man, usually unflappable on the touchline beyond an arched eyebrow, known to find pragmatic solutions and who can bend knockout tournaments to his will. “I think Brazil need a philosopher, a Guardiola or a Klopp in the long-term. Ancelotti is a short-term fix for a team struggling for stability and lacking in self-esteem,” said Kunti. That’s one point of view. The greatest coach in history will lead the greatest national team on the planet, as per Brazil football federation president Ednaldo Rodrigues, is another.
It was in the works for some time but the timing of the announcement is intriguing coming days before a corruption case against the CBF boss is about to be heard. The announcement has shifted the conversation from corruption to Carlo, said Kunti. If this hits too close to home for regular readers of Kickoff, it may or may not be coincidental.
The game in Brazil is sorely lacking in ideas, said Kunti. Teams play every three days and given that it is the size of a continent, there is little time to train, he said. “So most coaches opt for safety-first tactics. Palmeiras have a Portuguese coach (Abel Ferreira) and Flamengo had Jorge Jesus (in 2019). But a coach from Europe is still a relatively new idea.”
Kunti said the resistance to a foreign coach has reduced among the public used to watching the UEFA Champions League. In 2023, Zico said Ancelotti would be a good choice. In this interview to HT, he had taken a different stance but then, that was two failed World Cup campaigns ago. A Reuters report on Thursday quoted Mauro Silva as saying this was the right step and Dunga saying Brazilians should help Ancelotti. About the latter, Kunti is not so sure. “There will coaches in Brazil who would want Ancelotti to fail,” he said. If that sounds familiar to how foreign coaches are looked by many at in India, it may or may not be coincidental.
But Brazil’s latest coaching appointment, and that of England, shows that foreign coaches are not to scoffed at just because they are from another country. And that while it may lack the daily excitement a club job, it is no less alluring.
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