Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid's coaching position to coach the Brazilian national team.

Italy's Carlo Ancelotti will coach Brazil's national team with the mission of turning around the five-time world champions, who have been mired in a long-running crisis of performance and results, the Brazilian national team announced Monday.

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The veteran coach, 65 years old and until now Real Madrid's manager, will arrive with an urgent first mission: to reverse the Verdeamarela's disappointing performance in the South American World Cup qualifiers in the upcoming matches in June, against Ecuador and Paraguay .

"The greatest national team in the history of football will now be led by the world's most successful coach, Carlo Ancelotti," the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said in a statement.

The most successful coach in the history of the Champions League - with five titles - will oversee his first game with the Canarinha on June 5th away to Ecuador and will guide the team "to the 2026 World Cup," the CBF added.

In the meantime, " he will fulfill his commitments to Real Madrid until the end of the La Liga season," CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues stated in a video.

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Ancelotti is a long-standing dream of Rodrigues, who had previously considered signing the Italian to coach the national team starting with the 2024 Copa América . But he ended up renewing with the Spanish club, which he must now leave after a disappointing season.

This year, Real Madrid was eliminated from the Champions League, the Copa del Rey, and practically said goodbye to La Liga on Sunday after falling to the leader and eternal rival, Barcelona (4-3), in the Catalan city with three rounds remaining in the championship.

Madrid has not yet commented on the Italian's departure, and he is scheduled to hold a press conference on Tuesday before the match against Mallorca.

'Mr. Champions'

"Mr. Champions" will be the first foreigner to coach the Canarinha since Argentine Filpo Núñez officiated a friendly match in 1965.

Furthermore, the Reggiolo native (northern Italy) will be the third coach of the Brazilian national team since the start of the current South American qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup in North America.

Brazilians Fernando Diniz and Dorival Júnior preceded him on the bench before being sacked following defeats against Lionel Messi's arch-rivals Argentina .

The Seleção occupies the fourth position in the qualifying round with 21 points in 14 matches, ten less than the world champion Argentina, already qualified, and behind Ecuador (23) and Uruguay (21).

The wound against Argentina

With four rounds remaining, the scratch team, which hasn't won a World Cup since 2002, is in the direct qualification spots for the tournament that the United States, Mexico, and Canada will host next year.

But lacking convincing football, Raphinha and Vinícius Jr.'s team has suffered several blows, such as the 1-1 draw against Venezuela and the away defeats against Colombia (2-1) and Paraguay (1-0).

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The most painful, however, was against the Albiceleste. Brazil first buried its historic unbeaten record at home in South American qualifying by losing 1-0 at the legendary Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro in November 2023. And in March, it suffered an unusual thrashing (4-1) in Buenos Aires .

If for Brazilian fans, traditionally hostile toward foreign coaches, Ancelotti's hiring will be a novelty, for the Italian coach it will be his debut at the helm of a national team.

An unparalleled track record

His arrival will end a long period of suspense: José Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp... As the Seleçao crisis deepened, the media compared the names of the world's most successful coaches as candidates to take over.

Adored by his players, who praise his "quiet leadership" , Ancelotti won the Champions League title twice with AC Milan (2003 and 2007) and three times with Real Madrid (2014, 2022 and 2024).

In his two spells at the Merengue club, between 2013 and 2015 and from 2021 to this year, he won at least twice every club-level trophy he could win.

He is also the only coach to win all five of Europe's top leagues: the Italian with AC Milan (2003-04), the English with Chelsea (2009-10), the French with PSG (2012-13), the German with Bayern Munich (2016-17) and the Spanish with Real Madrid (2021-22, 2023-24).

AFP