A cycle has ended between Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti, and while there is a great deal of admiration for the Italian manager and a deep appreciation for the now three Champions League titles he has brought to the Santiago Bernabeu, there has been a prevading sense of "now is the time" for a change in the manager's seat, especially with Xabi Alonso available and eager to take the gig.
It seemed like the long-rumored potential switch to national team football and a job with Brazil would be the natural transition for Don Carlo in his final years as a top-level manager, and a deal was apparently as good as completed, paving the way for Alonso to replace him prior to the Club World Cup this summer.
That is no longer the case, as Fabrizio Romano and other reputable journalists across the world are reporting that Carlo Ancelotti to Brazil has fallen through. This is because Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has blocked a move. He is not paying the a final exit clause to Ancelotti, reasoning that because he is taking another job and not being fired, he is not entitled to an exit clause.
It is a messy situation, and Brazilian outlet "ge" reports that while Perez is ultimately responsible for the deal collapsing, Ancelotti also soured a bit on the job due to perceived instability within the national team's executive ranks. Jorge Jesus is now favored to take the job.
But what does this all mean for Real Madrid? Here are three burning questions for the club after Ancelotti's next move crumbled into dust without any prior warning.
Could Carlo Ancelotti coach Real Madrid for one more season?
I think this is the most pressing and immediate question for Real Madrid fans. While it is incredibly difficult to envision Real Madrid keeping Ancelotti around after they themselves decided they do not want to work with him any longer, in addition to the fact that it is painfully obvious that it's time to move on from a tactical perspective, it's not an impossible scenario either.
Ancelotti feels he is owed the money that Real Madrid are contractually obligated to pay him in order for him to exit the club before his contract ends. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez feels otherwise since he's leaving to take another job.
Ultimately, I think cooler heads will prevail, and even if it isn't Brazil, there are other jobs out there for Ancelotti. In fact, there's one so lucrative that it may as well make the exit clause ordeal a moot point, as MARCA have reported, that Carletto has an eye-watering 50 million euro per season salary offer on the table from the Saudi Pro League.
Is Florentino Perez justified in his actions?
The next question is specific to the dispute itself. Should Carlo Ancelotti be paid this unspecified amount of money by Real Madrid? Is it really worth it for the notoriously strong-headed Florentino Perez to dig his heels in and, as the president of a rich football club with a fancy new stadium, not compensate the manager that the board apparently feels is the greatest in the club's history?
It all seems a bit ridiculous. The easiest thing to do would be to pay Ancelotti a few bucks, watch him ride off onto the sunset without any hard feelings, keep your image intact at a time when pretty much everyone hates Real Madrid, and move on with your life - and with a fancy new manager in Xabi Alonso.
Instead, Real Madrid fans are left with another major distraction in the media at a time when they are desperately trying to stay alive for their only major trophy of the season after just getting humbed by bitter rivals Barcelona again.
But at the same time, you can understand why Perez is doing what he is doing. His point is a principled one. Real Madrid need to be negotiating and operating from a position of strength. Ancelotti just took a job with the Brazil national team before the season has concluded and is not being fired. He has shown interest in this job for more than a year as a potential transition point after Madrid. Why should a club legend get paid extra money for leaving the club and taking another lucrative job that will make him one of the richest managers in international football at 10 million euros per season.
If Ancelotti is willing to throw that away over an apparent exit clause, did he really want the job anyway? And should Florentino really bow to that demand? I mean, Ancelotti isn't some helpless victim here; he's currently facing up to four years in prison for tax evasion, so this isn't the case of Florentino bullying a player or someone who lacks agency, money, or a faultless record. This is a case of two stubborn, business-oriented, and highly accomplished individuals facing an impasse.
How does this impact Carlo's legacy to Real Madrid fans?
To be honest, not very much. The people who think Carlo Ancelotti is overrated are a vocal minority whose opinion is mostly ignored, and while they will have a field day with bashing Carlo here, I doubt most people will entertain them much. On the other hand, the vocal minority who think Ancelotti has a better legacy than three-peat winner Zinedine Zidane, who turned ashes into the foundations of Carlo's last two Champions League victories, will also remain similar in numbers and minimal in impact.
Ultimately, this is an example of a business dispute in football. Pretty much every individual in some sort of system with economic exchanges will work to maximize their gains and minimize their losses, and there are very few people who will go outside of that realm in order to make a principled stand. Zinedine Zidane resigned in 2021 after a horrible year in which he was scapegoated by the board through public media leaks and forfeited 24 million euros in the process. Despite multiple offers, Zidane has never taken a job since then and never once asked for any money from Real Madrid on the way out.
Ancelotti's legacy should not be tarnished by asking for what he was contractually owed - assuming that is the case - but I think this whole saga should be a reminder of how much Real Madrid fans, to this day, still don't quite appreciate just how special Zidane was to the team.