We live in an age of football coaches wedded to philosophies. If Jurgen Klopp’s teams will be remembered for their gegenpressing and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for their tiki-taka, it was Murderball that Marcelo Bielsa’s players were subjected to. Each of these coaches has influenced dozens of others, and impacted the sport from top to bottom.
On Saturday night, however, the most successful football manager in history will step out on to the Wembley turf for the Champions League final, and no one would be able to tell you what his philosophy is. Carlo Ancelotti is far too classy a man to brag, but in a quiet or reflective moment, he might just tell you that his way is to win.
And no one has won like Ancelotti. Twice, in 1989 and 1990, he was part of Arrigo Sacchi’s legendary AC Milan side that won the European Cup. As a manager, he has won European football’s biggest prize four times, twice with Milan (2003 and 2007) and two times with Real Madrid (2014 and 2022). A fifth success, against Borussia Dortmund, would move him two clear of the likes of Guardiola, Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane.
His critics will say that Ancelotti didn’t have to do much. Both at Milan and Real, the starting XIs read like a who’s who of world football. But you only have to look at all the expensively assembled Real sides between 2002 and 2014 to understand that football is no cheque-book sport where merely signing a Cristiano Ronaldo or a Kaka is any guarantee of success.
As a player, Ancelotti was very much a midfield general, who led by example in terms of both skill and composure. And as he approaches his 65th birthday, it’s that sense of calm that remains his greatest strength. In February 2023, a Liverpool team desperate to avenge their defeat in the 2022 Champions League final stormed into a 2-0 lead inside 14 minutes in a round-of-16 clash at Anfield. The atmosphere was febrile, and a lesser team and manager would probably have been spanked 5-0 or worse.
Instead, Real rode out the storm, equalised before half-time and scored three unanswered goals in the second half. Even more than his trophy wins, it was that ransacking of Fortress Anfield that was perhaps Ancelotti’s finest hour.
His other great strength has been his flexibility. There was a feeling towards the end of last season, especially when Real were routed 4-0 by Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, that time had run out for the Luka Modric-Toni Kroos generation. But instead of getting rid of them, Ancelotti has tapped into the wealth of experience they possess in the canniest way.
Kroos, who will retire from club football after Wembley, has started nine of the 12 Champions League games, and 24 of the 38 matches in La Liga, while accumulating over 3000 minutes. Modric started only 20 games in the two big competitions, but the 2000 minutes he has racked up speak of how Ancelotti has relied on his intelligence to come in and close out games.
If Real do win, Kroos will draw level with Paco Gento – Real legend from the 1950s and ’60s – as the only men to win club football’s biggest honour six times. It seems almost absurd that Real paid only 25 million Euros for him in the summer of 2014, after Bayern Munich told him he wasn’t worthy of an elite player’s salary.
That same transfer window, Colombia’s James Rodriguez arrived at the Santiago Bernabeu for a transfer fee that was exactly three times as large. He lasted three seasons before being shipped out on loan to Bayern. It’s Kroos who will leave the club a bonafide legend, no matter what happens on Saturday.
Borussia Dortmund and their relatively unknown coach, Edin Terzic, are rank outsiders, but you get the feeling that’s a tag the Germans will revel in. Their raucous fans in yellow and black will need no reminding of what happened the last time they went into a final against an all-time-great side. In 1997, Juventus, featuring Zidane, Christian Vieri, Alen Boksic and Alessandro Del Piero – off the bench – were huge favourites, but Dortmund won convincingly, 3-1, with Lars Ricken’s delicious lob still part of every Champions League highlights reel.
The pace and directness of Jadon Sancho, revived after his Manchester United nightmare, could well trouble Real’s full-backs, while no one will be more motivated than Marco Reus, Dortmund-born and playing his final game for the club of his heart. But with Real possessing such a wealth of midfield and attacking options, it’s hard to see how Dortmund will keep them out.
Jude Bellingham, so popular with the Dortmund faithful in his three seasons there, has been a game-changer for Real, while Vinicius Junior continues to torment the racist idiots who taunt him pretty much every game with his impactful performances. But it’s the men on the sidelines who are likely to have the final say. And in that regard, how on Earth do you look past ‘Don’ Carlo Ancelotti?