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What's next for Carlo Ancelotti after Champions League defeat?
Real Madrid lost 2-1 to Arsenal on Wednesday to end its 2024-25 Champions League run. The elimination came as a shock for Madrid; the team entered the tournament as the clear favorite.
The loss opens up plenty of questions for Madrid, but the biggest one surrounds Carlo Ancelotti, its enigmatic Italian coach. Ancelotti has long been considered one of Madrid's strongest assets. He's won five Champions League titles in his career—more than any other coach in history—and is the only person to win a domestic title in each of Europe's top five leagues. Ancelotti is a premier modern coach: he lacks the widespread appeal of Jurgen Klopp's intensity or Pep Guardiola's tactical dogmatism, but he outperforms both men all the same.
Ancelotti's Madrid contract carries him through to 2026, but rumors are circling about his early departure following the team's Champions League exit. The Athletic reports that Ancelotti and Madrid are expected to negotiate following Madrid's Copa del Rey final on Saturday, April 26; signs point to Ancelotti leaving at the end of the 2024-25 season by mutual consent. The club is eyeing Xabi Alonso, a former Madrid player and current coach of Bayer Leverkusen, as his successor.
But where will Ancelotti go? In a satisfying twist, the world's winningest coach just might align his future with the world's winningest team: Brazil.
Brazil has been after Ancelotti for years. Sources at the CBF, Brazil's national soccer federation, admitted that Ancelotti was "the president's dream" as far back as 2024. When the Ancelotti-Brazil rumors began, the alliance felt opportunistic and intriguing; today, though, after a poor run of form in South America's World Cup qualifiers, Brazil needs Ancelotti more than it wants him. Six South American teams will qualify automatically for the expanded 2026 World Cup; Brazil is currently in fourth, just one point outside of that final advancement slot. With four matches remaining in its qualification journey, a few more bad performances could see Brazil miss out on the World Cup altogether.
The CBF, to its credit, recognizes this; it fired coach Dorival Junior back in March with the goal of hiring a big-name replacement before Brazil's next qualifying match in early June. Ancelotti remains the organization's top target. If he leaves Madrid at the end of the season, he'll have plenty of time to take Brazil's reins before that crucial qualifier—and he'll be able to help the team rescue itself in time for the World Cup.
In many ways, Ancelotti is a natural fit for Brazil. He's worked closely with several of the team's biggest names—Vini Jr., Rodrygo, Endrick and Eder Militão—at Madrid. He's flexible and player-driven, the kind of leader who lets his talented stars run riot.
“I believe strongly in the players' creativity when they have the ball and I don't like to make them obsess over predefined shapes," Ancelotti told Real Madrid's communications team before last year's Champions League final. "I leave it down to their initiative."
That's an appealing mindset for Brazil, a team that always trades on individual talent. But it's a risky one, too. It relies on moments of magic, and those moments have been rare for the seleçao since earning its last trophy (the Copa America) in 2019.
But still, the marriage between Ancelotti and Brazil feels right: the world's preeminent player-driven coach meeting the world's preeminent player-driven team. Both are on the outs after disappointing runs of form in 2025, but both could spark each other back to life.
Ancelotti's Madrid will return to action on Sunday against Athletic Club in Spain's La Liga. Brazil will return on June 4 with a must-win World Cup qualifier against second-placed Ecuador.
More must-reads:
- Pitch-perfect Arsenal eliminates Real Madrid from Champions League
- Madrid masterclass sends Arsenal into PSG tie on a high
- The 'UEFA Champions League all-time scoring leaders' quiz
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