Abraham P. Romero Madrid
Madrid
Updated Sunday, February 11, 2024-23:31
In the
summer of 2021
, after calls from
Florentino Pérez and José Ángel Sánchez
to test him about his return to
Real Madrid
,
Carlo Ancelotti
had decided who his first work meeting would be with. There were no doubts, because his previous experience in
Valdebebas
had left some gaps that now, more than five years later, he was not willing to repeat. The Italian coach took his cell phone and scheduled a talk in person in Italy with
Antonio Pintus
, sergeant of the white team's physical preparation, a key man for
Zidane
in the
three
consecutive Champions Leagues and Florentino's galactic signing that same summer. I wanted to outline with him the new way of being of the coaching staff and the team.
That first call from Pérez "
changed everything
," they say, for Ancelotti who was navigating in the middle of the
Premier
table with
Everton
, away from the big spotlight. At that time, the coach took over at the
Bernabéu
and also assumed the Madrid idiosyncrasy. He returned with the experience of the first time, with the good and the bad. And he learned from it to prepare himself better, both he and his
staff
. He knew that things were going to be different in every way, that Madrid's structure was different, that the physical preparation was Pintus's and that football, and he himself, had changed.
There began his "
recycling
" and the reconstruction of his
family
, a coaching staff capable of leaving behind the rumors and
controversies of the first era
, competent to learn everything about "
modern football
" that now elevates Madrid in the
League and Champions
and It allows him to overcome the adversities of injuries, and as familiar as he is prepared to manage a
locker room without egos
.
The success of Ancelotti's second landing has not been coincidence or luck. The
Champions and the League of 2022
, the Cup of 2023, the Super Cups, the continental semifinals of last year...
Carletto
's Madrid has accumulated two and a half seasons of pure competitive elite and beyond sports planning, with extraordinary signings such as those of
Bellingham
,
Camavinga or Rüdiger
, the credit must also go to the bench. Ancelotti has been able to win in the midst of a reconstruction, to promote young players while firing (and firing) veterans, and to adapt to the needs of a club whose transfer plan does not change due to departures or specific injuries. "
There are no complaints or excuses
," he insists.
From Vecchi and Mauri to Davide and Francesco
"He is
a much more intelligent Ancelotti
, more energetic in the necessary points and who wears out much less than before in specialist departments," explain those who live the day-to-day life of the coaching staff. And if in 2013 his great assistants were the veterans
Villiam Vecchi
, goalkeeper coach, and
Giovanni Mauri
, physical coach,
now they are Davide, his son, and Francesco
, Giovanni's son. The shadow of nepotism appeared during the early stages of the careers of both young people, more than a decade ago, but time, the good relationship with the footballers and especially the successes have proven right to "
recycling
", as they call it in Valdebebas. , from the
Ancelotti
family .
Carlo and Davide.Angel MartinezWORLD
Madrid has also helped this, which has freed the Italian from physical and goalkeeping training and handed it over to "sergeant"
Pintus and Lluis Llopis
. That is to say, Ancelotti's main assistants are solely and exclusively for tactical and technical matters. In 2015, a lot of the friction came from what said preparation was like. And now the assistants are young, "two football patients."
Davide, 34
, assistant coach, and
Francesco, 35
, technical analyst. They have grown up together, one is Carlo's son and the other as if he were. They act as counterpoints to the technician and have "a very important weight." They see everything, players, leagues, new tactics... And they summarize it to
Carletto
, who assumes a managerial role. By age, his connection with the squad is much stronger than the previous ones.
A locker room without egos
A young and “permeable” dressing room helps a lot, they admit in Valdebebas. A group that allows itself to be advised and that no longer responds to the leadership of yesteryear.
Kroos and Modric
, leaders due to competitive inertia, share tactical concerns and are the first to "let themselves be trained." The
staff
, which includes the readapter
García Parrales
, maintains an Italian core completed by
Beniamino Fulco
(former nutritionist in the first stage and now an analyst) and
Simone Montanaro
(former from Sevilla who joined Ancelotti in Naples), in addition to various assistants in which there is a majority of Spaniards and transalpines. And on the roof of the pyramid, Ancelotti. Recycled and evolved manager, but with the usual double character. "He seems calm and lazy, but he's still the one in charge," they admit at the club, where they have attended a session in which the Italian sent his players to the shower because he didn't like what he saw. "
When he pushes
..." those who know him joke.
The rumor of Brazil and the offers to Davide
That
family
experienced some strange moments this season when Ancelotti was observing all the
rumors about Brazil
, his contract was not renewed and
Davide
was beginning to receive offers from abroad to become head coach. The father knows that the son will make a career out of this and that he will take
Mauri with him, but it will not be soon after
Carletto
's renewal
as Madrid coach.
Carlo, Davide and Francesco are part of the
daily meeting
that takes place every morning in Valdebebas (or at the hotel on duty). Before or after training, the coaching staff gets together to discuss tactics, contrast opinions and, like good Latins, argue from time to time, even about things that have nothing to do with Madrid and everything to do with the future of football.
They have well-defined roles
, both at work and personal level. Some more shy, others, like Mauri, hotter. At the Bernabéu you sometimes see him running out of the bench to shout at a player. He has it in his blood.
"
Davide and Francesco are very much to blame for Ancelotti's evolution
," explain voices close to the locker room. The coach doesn't watch 20 videos like before, but he triumphs because of the impetus of his young players, on and off the field. They are Carletto's men.