The Sunday Times May 29, 2022 7
ANCELOTTI LEADS THE WAY
Carlo Ancelotti has won the competition four times, the most by any manager
Carlo Ancelotti 4
2003 2007 2014 2022Bob Paisley 3
1977 1978 1981Zinedine Zidane 3
2016 2017 2018Vicente del Bosque 2
2000 2002Luis Carniglia 2
1958 1959Brian Clough 2
1979 1980Dettmar Cramer 2
1975 1976Sir Alex Ferguson 2
1999 2008Pep Guardiola 2
2009 2011Béla Guttmann 2
1961 1962Ernst Happel 2
1970 1983Jupp Heynckes 2
1998 2013Helenio Herrera 2
1964 1965Ottmar Hitzfeld 2
1997 2001Ștefan Kovács 2
1972 1973Miguel Muñoz 2
1960 1966Jose Mourinho 2
2004 2010Nereo Rocco 2
1963 1969Arrigo Sacchi 2
1989 1990José Villalonga 2
1956 1957A
s Carlo Ancelotti reflects
quietly, ever attentive to
avoid anything resembling
boasting, on his fourth tri-
umph as a head coach in the
most glamorous club com-
petition in his sport, he can
start to prepare for his holi-days. A portion of them will be spent
almost as far away as possible from
Madrid, on the west coast of Canada,
where he has a home.
From there, looking like a very dis-
tant speck in his rear-view mirror, he
can peer at the Champions League
credentials of the most fêted, trend-
setting managers of the century
through which Ancelotti has been
coaching elite teams. Sometimes he is
not immediately bracketed with those
coaches because it is harder to locate
the innovations, or design metrics,
that neatly measure the skills he has
brought to his profession.
But it is worth wondering how long
it might take, if ever, for Pep Guardiola
(two European Cups as a manager) or
José Mourinho (a couple) or Jürgen
Klopp and Thomas Tuchel (one each)
to get to as many Champions League
titles as Ancelotti has. Or whether Zin-
édine Zidane — three European Cups
on the trot — can match Ancelotti’s
achievement of spreading a quartet of
titles across two different clubs.
He won his first, with AC Milan, 19
years ago, on penalties against the
Juventus who had only quite recently
sacked him. He avenged Liverpool for
their defeat of Milan in the 2005 final
by collecting his second European
Cup against the same opponents in
Athens two years later. His first Cham-
pions League success with Real will
always resonate because it was the
club’s tenth, an important milestone
given that the wait since No 9 had
grown to a dozen years, with a great
deal of money spent on eye-catching
signings who went in and out of the
club without a European Cup win-
ners’ medal: Brazil’s Ronaldo; David
Beckham and Michael Owen; and
Kaká.
Seven weeks after overseeing Real’s
2014 victory, Ancelotti, then 55, got
married to his second wife, a Cana-
dian. He knew that Real would be get-
ting on with their summer business
with what is the club’s usual detach-
ment from the head coach; listening
to him, informing him of develop-
ments, but making their decisions
based on many different criteria. That
year, 2014, was a major tournament
year.
Under the long mandates of Floren-
tino Pérez, the president for 19 of the
past 22 years, that is significant in
terms of transfers. Pérez appreciates
Ian Hawkey
umph, was a more spontaneous, risk-
ier move. And it paid off for a while.
The plan for summer 2022 had been
for Real to welcome to the natural
home of the European Cup the near-
est modern equivalent to the Brazil-
ian: someone explosively fast, excel-
lent as a finisher, a World Cup gold
medallist too, and who would, long
term, supply the attacking presence
that the other Ronaldo, Cristiano, did
for nine seasons until 2018.
That man is Kylian Mbappé, who
Real believed was committed to join-
ing them. Eight days ago Mbappé
instead signed a mammoth three-year
extension with Paris Saint-Germain.
Madridistas will take pleasure in
crowing this weekend that Mbappé
erred in rejecting the 14-times Euro-
pean Cup winners for a club who have
never won it. But a hard truth is, for all
the lustre of last night’s triumph,
Real’s recruitment strategy for build-
ing on their Liga and Champions
League Double from this season has
been skewed by their assumptions
about Mbappé and then his apparent,
sudden volte-face. They are now play-
ing catch-up. The obvious alternative
among the game’s top-ranked young
strikers, Erling Haaland, is no longer
on the market, having joined Man-
chester City. Because of the peculiari-
ties of the 2022 calendar, there is also
no summer World Cup to promote a
star who Madrid, reverting to a tradi-
tional modus operandi, could then
briskly headhunt.
They need reinforcements, and not
only a back-up for the goals and front-
line leadership of Karim Benzema,
who is 34. The usual midfield trio for
big matches has a combined age of 98,
and for all that Ancelotti has carefully
curated the stamina levels of his veter-
ans and shown growing trust in two or
three talented prospects, he would
acknowledge that this season’s Span-
ish title race, with Barcelona weak-
ened and Atletico Madrid unusually
inconsistent, was not the toughest he
has won and that the road to Paris last
night had its moments of fortune.
There is money to strengthen the
squad, and a significantly large space
in the salary budget, with Gareth Bale
on his way out. But there is also, from
Pérez above all, a certainty that auc-
tions for the best footballers are not as
easily won as when Figo, Zidane or
either of the Ronaldos were lured.
PSG and City have shown that this
month. And their money talks just as
loudly as Real’s carefully varnished,
and deserved, pride at the sheer
quantity of their European Cups.the impact of signing a freshly suc-
cessful World Cup or European Cham-
pionship star. Toni Kroos, of Ger-
many’s 2014 world champions, joined
the summer after Ancelotti’s first
Champions League success with Real.
After the 2010 World Cup, Real had
swooped for two of the brighter
young Germans who impressed in
South Africa, Mesut Ozil and Sami
Khedira. In 2006, they signed Italy’s
World Cup-winning skipper, Fabio
Cannavaro. In the earliest days of
Pérez’s presidency, every summer
had a headline recruit, record sums
paid for Luís Figo and Zidane, but the
capture of Ronaldo in 2002, just after
the striker had come back from a long
set of battles with injury to gloriously
spearhead Brazil’s World Cup tri-CHAMPIONS’ TROUBLE
Mbappé’s high-profile rejection of
Real shows club are now playing
catch-up in bid to lure biggest stars
PSG and City’s
money talks
just as loud as
Real’s sheer
quantity of
European Cups