Carlo Ancelotti has won everything club football has to offer. Five Champions Leagues. League titles in five different countries. The only logical next challenge was the one thing that's always slipped away — a World Cup winner's medal.
He got a runner-up in 1994 as Arrigo Sacchi's assistant, standing on the touchline while Brazil beat Italy on penalties. Now he's been hired to flip the script: deliver a sixth World Cup for the Selecao and, along the way, cement his case as the greatest manager who ever lived. The symmetry is almost too neat.
A manager built for this job
What makes Ancelotti uniquely suited here isn't just his CV — it's the Brazilian thread running through his entire career. Kaka, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, Cafu at Milan. David Luiz and Ramires at Chelsea. Thiago Silva at PSG. Then Marcelo, Casemiro, Militao, Rodrygo, Vinicius at Real Madrid. No foreign coach alive has spent more time working with Brazilian talent at the highest level.
That intimacy matters. Vinicius finished second in the Ballon d'Or off the back of what he did under Ancelotti at Real, not what he did in a yellow shirt. That gap — between his club form and his international output — is exactly what Brazil are paying Ancelotti to close.
His first call was telling: Casemiro recalled from international exile. Classic Ancelotti. He trusts who he knows, builds structures around real relationships, and doesn't particularly care what the prevailing opinion is.
The squad gaps that won't disappear
The fit is good. The squad, less so. Brazil got torn apart 4-1 by Argentina before Ancelotti arrived, and the structural problems that caused that haven't been solved by a change of manager.
There's no credible heir to Ronaldo as a No. 9. The full-back positions — historically one of Brazil's greatest strengths, from Cafu to Marcelo — are thin. Rodrygo, who was building real momentum, is out injured. Estevao Willian is also missing.
Those absences appear to have opened the door for Neymar's return, nearly three years after his last cap. At this point in his career, Neymar's inclusion says more about the squad's depth problem than it does about his current level. That's not a slight — it's just the reality of where both Neymar and Brazil are in 2025.
Then there's the age profile. Eleven players in their thirties. Ancelotti has built a squad that reflects his management style — experienced, relationships-first, tactically flexible — but age is a legitimate risk over a tournament that runs through the heat of a North American summer.
Brazil's World Cup odds will attract serious money based on the name on the dugout. Whether the squad behind him justifies the price is a different question entirely. Ancelotti signed through 2030, which means a second tournament if this one falls short. The nearly man of 1994 has given himself more than one shot at getting it right.
