Former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti is one of the club's greatest ever figures, and he stands neck and neck with Zinedine Zidane as their best manager of all time. Ancelotti won three Champions League titles across two very different eras, finally sealing Real's place back on top with La Decima before winning two more in incredible fashion in 2021/22 and 2023/24 against some odds.
After winning his third Champions League title at the club, Ancelotti said to The Times in England, “We won the league this season because there is no ego here. Viní Jr, no ego. Bellingham, no ego. Rodrygo, no ego. And the senior players too. Toni Kroos, Carvajal, Nacho, Modrić. I don’t know what happens in the future but there is no jealousy between the young ones now. Humility is important. You must have that.”
It is so, so sad looking back at that quote in 2024 and the heights Real Madrid achieved under Ancelotti without a striker and with the same approach PSG have taken to two trips in a row to the Champions League Final: a team where the entire team is a star and plays as one fluid unit, rather than one built around a superstar. It was Ancelotti's great achievement to get Real Madrid to dominate ilke this, even after Karim Benzema's decline and departure after being the protagonist in 2021/22.
Kylian Mbappe destroyed it all
Well, Real Madrid went out and disrupted the entire equilibrium that summer with Kylian Mbappe. Since then, Real Madrid have won no trophies, and not Carlo Ancelotti, his supposed upgrade Xabi Alonso (and how did that turn out?), and Alvaro Arbeloa have been able to change that equation.
With their 2-0 loss to Barcelona to seal the La Liga crown to Catalunya, Real Madrid are trophyless for two years in a row since that quote about ego from Ancelotti, and now they have the biggest ego around in Kylian Mbappe, who seemed to have quit on the team at the end of the season than rather not be the star of the show.
It is appalling how one move has changed the fortunes of Real Madrid so much for the worse, while PSG seemed to have usurped Real as the biggest club in the world in an addition by subtraction move never seen before in history. How can a player be the best in the world if the club they leave becomes the best and the club they join goes from being the best to a nonfactor?
Ego. Football is about more than FIFA ratings or goals on a stat sheet. Ancelotti knew it and almost seemed to warn Real Madrid in that subtle, clairvoyant way of his. Florentino Perez did not pay heed, and now his Galacticos 2.0 project is a failure.
Add us as a preferred source on Google