Ancelotti, the Ego Manager Who Became a Real Madrid Legend

Bittersweet triumph for Carlo Ancelotti at the Ballon d'Or. With no Madrid presence in Paris after the club learned that the main prize did not go to Vinicius, the consolation award went to the Italian coach, recognized as the best coach of the 2023-24 season after winning the second Champions-League double of his fruitful tenure at Real Madrid.

The Italian surpassed the other candidates, with Luis de la Fuente as the main rival after winning the European Championship with Spain. Carletto's career prevailed, marked by a record five Champions League titles and trophies in the five major European leagues, another milestone unreachable for any other coach. Behind him were Pep Guardiola, Premier League champion with Manchester City; Xabi Alonso, after the historic Bundesliga title won by his Bayer Leverkusen, and Lionel Scaloni, who achieved the second consecutive Copa América for the Argentine national team.

Although somewhat overshadowed by Real Madrid's absence at the gala and at a delicate moment after Barça's thrashing in the classic held at the Santiago Bernabéu, the recognition of Carletto serves to acknowledge not only a fantastic season, the coach's fifth at Chamartín, but also a unique career since his debut on the benches almost three decades ago, in the 1995-96 season with the Italian Reggiana.

Since that distant debut, Ancelotti has passed through some of Europe's greatest clubs and has triumphed in almost all of them thanks to his excellent management of the egos typical of a star-studded locker room. Carletto went through Parma and Juventus before experiencing a true golden era at Milan, the club where he triumphed as a player during the glorious era of Arrigo Sacchi. Like his mentor on the benches, the man from Reggiolo also led the 'rossonero' team to conquer the Old Continent twice. Champion of the Champions in 2003 and 2007, and finalist in 2005, that fruitful period at San Siro ended in 2009, with Carletto's signing by Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge, the Italian won the Premier League in 2010. It was the second of his major leagues, before winning the French Ligue 1 in 2013, when he was managing Paris Saint-Germain.

Soon after, he opened the first of his two spells at Real Madrid, where Europe's most decorated team ended twelve years of drought in their favorite competition with the coveted Tenth in 2014. A year later, in 2015, he left Chamartín to take a sabbatical year. That personal journey in Canada did him well, as he returned to top-level football with Bayern Munich, with whom he also won the Bundesliga in 2017.

He only lacked the Spanish League, which he could not add to his collection in his first stint with Madrid, and when he seemed far from the elite after managing Napoli and Everton, a second opportunity arose that Carletto did not miss. He returned to the Bernabéu in 2021 and since then has accumulated two Champions and two Leagues, in addition to becoming the second coach with the most matches at Madrid and the most decorated alongside the legendary Miguel Muñoz, with 14 trophies in white.