Carlo Ancelotti's recipe to excite 213 million people

BarcelonaIt's hard to imagine what could make Carlo Ancelotti nervous. The veteran Italian coach has managed some of the most high-pressure clubs in the world, such as Madrid, Juve, and Chelsea. He has worked under the watchful eyes of Florentino Pérez, Silvio Berlusconi, or Roman Abramovich. He has learned how to talk to selfish young players and eccentric businessmen. He knows how to treat generous footballers and others who are selfish. It's hard to explain his favorite tactical system, but he knows how to manage people and motivate them. That's why he received the call from the Brazilian Football Confederation less than two years ago. Brazil, the national team that has won the World Cup the most times, entrusted him with the task of being great again. For the first time in history, Brazil is entering a World Cup with a foreign coach. Ancelotti doesn't seem nervous, though. He looks happy.

Although Brazil briefly had a Portuguese coach in the 40s and an Argentine in the 60s, who didn't get past managing a couple of games, until now the national team managers were always local. But the last World Cup won by Brazil was in 2002. The country where football is a natural part of national identity has not achieved good results for years, with painful defeats like the one four years ago against Croatia and especially the humiliating 1-7 defeat against Germany in the semifinals of the Brazil World Cup. The Federation, therefore, opted for Ancelotti, who after closing his second spell at Madrid moved to Rio de Janeiro. Ancelotti has chosen this city and has set up his base camp in a hotel in Barra de Tijuca, a very elegant area, and he moves around the Leblon neighborhood, where he is often seen in an Italian restaurant, as he misses the food from his homeland. But he has adapted well to Brazil. His Portuguese is improving and with his calmness, he has been winning over the hearts of Brazilians. In 2025, a poll indicated that only 33% of Brazilians believed they could win the World Cup. Now that figure has risen to 60%.

"He has overcome the obstacle of being a foreign coach very well. It had never happened before, reaching a World Cup with a foreign coach. He knows how to adapt very well," says UOL journalist Thiago Arantes. When he was chosen, a large part of the debate went in this direction: what could a European contribute? Ancelotti has moved past the debate calmly. His nationality is not discussed. When a Brazilian channel prepared a surprise for him, a video of his children and grandchildren cheering him on, seeing that many were wearing the Brazil jersey finally moved the "canarinha" followers.

But the key, in the end, will be to win. Brazil has not achieved good results in recent years. At times, it lives as a prisoner of past glories, especially that magnificent 1970 team that won the championship playing the most beautiful football, a team to which a film has been dedicated these days. "In Brazil, people are divided between those who believe Ancelotti is lost, making many changes and not knowing what to do, and those who think he is experimenting but has a plan that will work. I believe he is clear about what he wants to do. He started first with a team with four attacking players with Rodrygo, Vinícius, Estêvão, and Raphinha, but with the injuries of two of them, he has been evolving the team, aware that the team is losing potential. My feeling is that as he remembers the 1994 World Cup, he has a very strong reference point in the Brazil squad of that time: solid defense, two more defensive pivots, two midfielders who can play more openly and who will sacrifice themselves to make two forwards shine. I would say that players like Bruno Guimaraes, Casemiro, Cunha, and Paquetá will work so that Raphinha and Vinícius are the Romário and Bebeto of the present," points out Arantes.

Ancelotti usually moves around with a car full of security guards behind him to avoid scares, although he looks uncomfortable because he prefers to go his own way. When he can talk about football, he smiles more. In a talk he gave to future coaches in São Paulo, he explained that "talent, without work, is not worth much," a statement that seemed to announce he would leave Neymar out of the squad. In the end, he has called him up, although he will be a substitute. Ancelotti seems to understand how to avoid debates and add positively, and he spends a lot of time in Brazil, although he has divided his time between Rio de Janeiro and Canada, as his wife is from there. When he is in Rio, he usually dines with former Brazilian players he met in Italy, like Branco. This way, he learns and gathers information to know how to manage a role that he himself has defined as "the most complicated" of his career.

"Ancelotti knows how to adapt very well to conditions and environments. He has demonstrated it. He is a winning coach, but he will not recover the jogo bonito. He wants to compete. He has promised more than once that Brazil will compete against the great selections, he does not talk about recovering the essence of Brazilian play. He talks about competing. It is pragmatism", comments Arantes. The debut will be at twelve midnight from Saturday to Sunday against Morocco, the surprising semifinalist of the World Cup four years ago. It will be the first test for Carlo Ancelotti, the Italian who wants to excite more than 215 million Brazilians. And all this, just when film director Paolo Sorrentino has announced that he would dedicate a documentary to him. We will have to see if the final scene will be with a trophy in his hands or not.