Rejected at Napoli, forgotten at Everton Ancelotti set record at Real Madrid

Football legend Carlo Ancelotti has won the first La Liga title in his coaching career, returning to greatness after his spells at Napoli and Everton.

One would think Ancelotti’s career was going downhill when he was sacked first by Bayern Munich and then by Napoli.

In 2019, the Italian tactician left Naples after barely one year in charge. He had ended the first season as runner-up behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus, but a bad start in 2019-20 cost him the job.

The former midfielder was also against a training retreat imposed by the club, so Aurelio De Laurentiis decided to sack him, hiring his former pupil Gennaro Gattuso who never managed to snatch a top-four finish at the club.

“Naples is the best city in the world to go on holiday. I coached in the morning and I’d go out by boat in the afternoon,” Ancelotti said earlier this week.

 “The first season was positive, but I argued with the club during the second one because of a training retreat that I didn’t want. However, there was no conflict.”

“Ancelotti is a top coach, but Napoli fans didn’t like him. He wasn’t smart enough to be seen as one of us,” De Laurentiis added in a different interview with DAZN.

Carletto got a new job only a few weeks later when Everton hired him to replace Marco Silva. Looking backwards, his spell at Goodison Park wasn’t as bad given that the Toffees are now struggling for Premier League survival. Ancelotti didn’t qualify for Europe but was never close to being relegated.

“They [Everton] have very passionate fans, and I really liked that, we were unlucky that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves more at Goodison,” said Ancelotti in his interview with Universo Valdano this week.

“The team finished on 60 points, a miracle, but we won more on the road than at home. It was a good time.”

Everton managed 59 points last term, just three behind a Conference League placement.

Many were taken by surprise when Real Madrid brought him back to the club in the summer.

Even Ancelotti didn’t expect to receive a call from Florentino Perez after Max Allegri had snubbed the job for the second time in his career.

His calm and relaxed approach turned out to be what Madrid stars needed. The Merengues had a fairly quiet campaign and dominated La Liga from start to finish. They suffered a heavy defeat in the most recent Clasico that surely meant more to Barcelona than Madrid.

Javi Martinez, one of his former players, has recently spoken about Ancelotti’s work at Bayern Munich and why it was great to work under the Italian coach.

“He is like a father, he cares so much about his players,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Pep [Guardiola] is more rigid and more focused on video analysis, but a team needs discipline. Pep had more control than Carlo, nothing huge, but it was noticeable.

“Ancelotti is a smart coach, he perfectly knows football. He returned to Madrid, giving a new life to a team that had lost Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane after Ronaldo,” he continued.

“Carlo knows what teams need. When I am asked who is the best coach in the world, I always say Guardiola, but for a player, it’s important to work with coaches who know how to get the best out of you and I’ve never felt as good as under Carlo. Not only in footballing terms but also personally. I believe he is the best of all.”

A staff which includes his son Davide and the experienced Antonio Pintus, one of the best fitness coaches in the world (he was at Inter with Antonio Conte last season) has also helped Ancelotti, although the partnership with his son hasn’t always been appreciated by footballers in the past, especially in Germany.

Now that he has been crowned Spanish champion, Ancelotti has one more target to achieve. His Madrid side play in the second leg of the Champions League semis against Man City next week and Carletto dreams of becoming the first coach to win the Champions League final four times. The path is still long, but he has already eliminated PSG and defending European champions Chelsea in the knock-out phase.

Those who thought he was a finished coach will have to think again.