MADRID, 30 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The coach of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, entered football history this Saturday by becoming the first to conquer the five major leagues in Europe (Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France) after adding his first with the white team in his second spell at Chamartín, another achievement for a coach who has also been capable of winning three Champions Leagues and with two different teams.
The Reggiolo coach, who led the white team for the first time during the 2013-15 period, lifted the ‘Champions League’ in Lisbon, the long-awaited Tenth, and also the Copa del Rey against Guardiola’s FC Barcelona at Mestalla, in a final remembered by Bale’s sprint to knock down the Catalans a few minutes to 90.
However, Ancelotti failed to win La Liga with Real Madrid in those two seasons. In the first he finished third in a championship won by Atlético de Madrid – Simeone’s first – although the Whites finished only three points behind the mattresses and tied with Barça for second place. The ‘goal average’ finally placed them third.
In the following campaign, 2014-15, Real Madrid, despite initially enjoying a good advantage, finished the League in second position, two points behind Barça, who were proclaimed champions despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s 48 goals in that championship . Two seasons and two title options that finally came to nothing after the team’s downturn in the decisive stretch of the course.
However, this season everything has gone smoothly for Carlo Ancelotti and his team after seizing a fully deserved wound and with a very wide difference. The meringues are currently ahead of Barça by 16 points with five games remaining to finish the domestic tournament. An outstanding triumph that culminates the Italian’s career.
Ancelotti won his first ‘great’ League in the 2003-04 season directing AC Milan -in his third campaign as a ‘rossonero’ and after having caressed it up to three times. The first was with Parma in 1997 -he was runner-up- and the other two came when he was in charge of Juventus, where he also certified two second places (1999-00 and 2000-01), by just two and a point of difference with the winner.
But in 2004 he was able to lift his first league title in Serie A with the club where he developed almost his entire career as a footballer. That squad made up of great talents such as Andriy Shevchenko, top scorer in the championship, Dida, Cafú, Kaká, Seedorf, the eternal Maldini, Inzaghi and Nesta, among many others.
During the next five seasons with AC Milan, Ancelotti was close to the title again a year later but in the rest of the seasons he was third, fourth and fifth. That’s where the change of scenery came with his arrival at Chelsea, where he joined the Premier League at his first opportunity. The 2009/10 allowed him to premiere in England.
That combined ‘blue’ with players like Didier Drogba -top scorer that year- or Frank Lampard earned him to beat Manchester United by a single point. A title that opened the doors of French football for him where he directed a Paris Saint-Germain that was shaping its megaproject based on petrodollars.
The same thing happened to him as in London but in reverse. In Paris he did not win at the first change, but he did in his second season. A League win with 12 points of rent and with an unstoppable Zlatan Ibrahimovic, author of 30 goals to take the Parisians to the highest. It was the third great League of him in the pocket. Two remained: Germany and Spain.
It was then that he achieved them in the Bundesliga -after his first stage in Madrid- in a Bayern where he had no problems confirming his dominance. The Germans have been winning their League for a decade and with Ancelotti it was no less. In total, 15 points ahead of his pursuer and a bag of goals from Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben.
THE SPANISH LEAGUE PUT THE INCINING
However, Ancelotti was dismissed from Munich after a embarrassing defeat with PSG in the Champions League that forced him to wait until next year to sit on the bench again. With Naples he was second that season and ‘liquidated’ the next in what -it seemed- was a step backwards in his career after opting for Everton in the 2019-20 season.
Ancelotti, who spent two seasons back in England, was recruited by Florentino Pérez last summer after Zinédine Zidane’s departure. This move has given him license to fight for the League that was missing from his record: the most prestigious in Europe and the one that already shines in his private showcases.
–LEAGUES WON BY CARLO ANCELOTTI.
-As a coach:
ITALY: AC Milan: 2003-04.
ENGLAND: Chelsea: 2009-10.
FRANCE: Paris Saint-Germain: 2012-13.
GERMANY: Bayern Munich: 2016-17.
SPAIN: Real Madrid: 2021-22.
