Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Matteo Ciambelli / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 18:54 p.m., July 05, 2023

Carlo Ancelotti will take over the reins of the Seleçao at the end of his contract with Real Madrid in June 2024. The technician will have an immense challenge, that of putting the Brazilian national team back on the international stage. He will thus aim for the football World Cup in 2026.

Calm at the edge of the pitch, Carlo Ancelotti has already reached the empyrean of European football with Real Madrid. And it is a challenge to his immense measure that awaits him with Brazil, which he will lead in 2024: to bring a notoriously febrile "Seleçao" to the roof of the world. "Carlo never gets angry," said his former player Paolo Maldini. And yet, it will be necessary for the 64-year-old Italian to set the record straight, because the hope he carries is gigantic since it is to offer the Brazilian selection its sixth world title that has eluded it since 2002.

It is the 2026 World Cup that Brazil is aiming for with Ancelotti, even if the latter will take office at next year's Copa America (June-July) in the United States, at the end of his contract with Real. With a fourth Champions League won with the "White House" in 2022 and a cabinet overflowing with 26 trophies, his recruitment is one of the best possible for Brazil. Until the Copa, Fernando Diniz, the technician of Fluminense (Brazilian D1) will ensure the interim.

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Quiet strength

"Carletto" will thus arrive to replace Tite, who has succeeded only interim since his resignation last winter, after the bitter failure in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar. Eliminated by Croatia on penalties, the "Auriverde" advanced as favorites, despite a beautiful intermittent game. On the land of Pelé, legend who died on December 29, Carlo Ancelotti is thus expected as the "quiet force" that will put the most successful nation in history in the World Cup (5 times) on the road to success.

His famous raised left eyebrow betrays a phlegm technician. An essential quality to manage egos, in a team where he will find Vinicius, Rodrygo and Eder Militao, but will especially have to deal with the Neymar case, if he continues his international career. Ancelotti was a choice of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Its president, Ednaldo Rodrigues, absolutely wanted him "for his record, but also because he is a good person," he explained on the channel beIN Sports.

In 2014, Rodrigues travelled to Madrid to meet him, while "Il Mister", Ancelotti's nickname, was in his first term with Real (2013-2015 and since 2021). In his book "The quiet leader" published in 2016, the "Sir" in question details a method all in philosophy. "Your job is not to motivate talents (they have to find motivation in themselves), your job is not to demotivate them."

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"Nice big bear"

Born in Reggiolo (northern Italy), Ancelotti likes to be close to his players, putting cigars in their mouths with those of Real after the triumph in C1, or even calling them "friends". Maldini, again, describes a "nice big bear" incapable of bloodshed: "It can only happen when he eats, because once he holds a fork, it takes an army to stop him!" Cultivating his bonhomie, "Carletto" last season became the first coach in history to win all five major championships of European football, gleaning the La Liga he lacked with Madrid. "After Real yes, I probably stop," he said. But if Real keep me here for ten years, I will coach for ten years."

However, he chose to continue his career, on another continent moreover, he who has coached at least one great team in each major European championship: AC Milan (2001-2009, two C1), Paris SG (2011-2013), Chelsea (2009-2011) and Bayern Munich (2016-2017). The bench of the Seleçao will nevertheless be the first experience in the national team as coach of this former hard-working midfielder, who played with Italy (26 caps, 1 goal).

"He's the best coach in the world," said Vinicius, who became one of the best in his position under Ancelotti. "When you have a clear conscience for having done your best, it is never a failure," philosophized the interested party. But beware of him! Because in the land of football any result other than a sixth star, he will be reproached.