Overcoming resistance – Ancelotti’s bid to revive Brazil

Carlo Ancelotti was entering unknown territory.

Despite having previously worked with 43 Brazilian players throughout his coaching career, the Italian manager had been in the South American country just once before – back in the early 2000s on a scouting mission as Juventus boss.

So, after much back-and-forth, when he reached an agreement in May 2025 to lead Brazil as their first-ever foreign coach at a World Cup, he knew he had to hit the ground running.

And so he did.

At one of his initial meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Ancelotti noticed plenty of the local staff at the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) trying to speak Spanish and even Italian to him.

“No, no,” he reacted with a smile on his face.

“I’m the one who has to make the effort to speak Portuguese here.”

The 66-year-old was aware that if he were to win over a fanbase that takes a lot of pride in the Selecao and has always considered itself to be self-sufficient in football, he needed to do that.

Such was his focus that he hired a Portuguese teacher and committed to four lessons a week.

“I was surprised by his commitment,” Roberto Piantino, who has been working with him on his Portuguese, told BBC Sport.

“I remember once we finished a lesson on a Friday and, as usual, I asked him when he wanted to do the next one. He said: ‘Tomorrow.’ But that was a Saturday. I said: ‘Of course, no problem.’ That meant 9am in Vancouver [where Ancelotti lives with his wife].

“It happened more than once. That showed me how serious he really was about learning.”

Sunday’s 6-2 drubbing of Panama in their penultimate match before the World Cup kicks off was encouraging.

Bournemouth’s Rayan scored his first goal for his country, Brentford’s Igor Thiago was on target, while Vinicius Jr, Casemiro and Lucas Paqueta and Danilo also hit the net.

Ancelotti will need every tool available to him though – Portuguese included – for the size of the challenge ahead this summer: preventing Brazil from setting an unwanted record.

The five-time champions last won the World Cup in 2002 and have never gone six editions without lifting the trophy.

There’s a strong case, however, that the former Real Madrid and Chelsea coach is the right man for the job.

“One of the things Brazil needed the most was a manager bigger than the players,” former international Walter Casagrande, now a respected football pundit, argued.

Ancelotti ticks that box: a record five Champions League titles and trophies in all five of Europe’s major leagues carry real weight, even in a dressing room featuring Neymar, Vinicius Jr, Raphinha and co.

The ‘world champion’ at adapting

In appointing Ancelotti, Brazil confronted one of the biggest taboos in their football history: the national team being led by a foreign coach.

Even with the Italian’s CV, there was initial resistance.

“We are the only country to have won the World Cup five times. It’s not that a foreigner should never coach the national team, but I would have gone for a Brazilian coach,” said Cafu, a two-time World Cup winner in 1994 and 2002.

At an event for Brazilian coaches in November, the tension around the subject became impossible to ignore.

As Ancelotti went on stage to be honoured, he found himself listening to speeches from local colleagues criticising the presence of foreign managers in Brazil. “I have always said I don’t like foreign coaches in my country. We, as coaches, are to blame for this invasion,” said Emerson Leao, a 1970 World Cup winner.

Such was the awkwardness that Ancelotti’s son and assistant coach, Davide, left the event shortly afterwards.

But that proved to be a largely isolated episode in Ancelotti’s first year in charge.

Despite inconsistent results – six wins, two draws and three defeats in his initial 11 matches – recent research from Quaest, a leading polling institute, found most Brazilians trust him.

According to the survey, 41% approve of his work, compared with 29% who disapprove.

With that support, the CBF moved quickly, renewing his deal until 2030 before he had even led Brazil at the World Cup.

However, that was also a reflection of arguably Ancelotti’s biggest strength: his ability to get people behind him.

Sources have told BBC Sport that although he received the first draft of the contract in early April, he held off signing it for about a month. The reason was that he wanted three other CBF staff members – whom he credited with helping him to adapt in Brazil – to have their contracts extended until 2030, too.

“He is a chameleon,” said 1994 World Cup winner Leonardo, who worked with Ancelotti at AC Milan and Paris St-Germain both as a player and as an executive.

“Wherever he goes, he adapts to the people, the team, the players. He is a world champion at that. If I ever bought a team, my coach would be Carlo. There is no other choice.

“He enters into symbiosis with the environment, and that has already happened here [in Brazil]. People like him.”

‘We have two of the best five players in the world’

Despite a chaotic four-year cycle – among other things, Brazil had their confederation president removed from office by court order, went through four different coaches and ended the qualifiers with their worst-ever campaign – Ancelotti still believes he can deliver their sixth World Cup title.

“We have two of the five best players in the world,” he repeated in the corridors of the CBF headquarters.

He’s referring to Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr and Barcelona’s Raphinha.

But then comes the hardest part: making them perform for the Selecao the same way they do for their clubs. In Ancelotti’s bold 4-2-4 tactical system, that hasn’t been the case yet.

Sunday’s win was just the third time the Italian has had the two on the pitch together, the previous times being in a 1-0 win over Paraguay in June 2025 and in a 2-1 defeat by France in March this year. On the latter occasion, however, Raphinha came off at half-time. With Rodrygo and Estevao Willian out injured, making that partnership work will be even more important.

If that is still a work in progress, the dressing room is not. Ancelotti has already got the players listening.

“In the game against Paraguay [in June 2025], we needed to win to qualify for the World Cup. At half-time, a lot of people were talking, talking, talking. Then he said: ‘Guys, wait. I’m going to smoke a cigarette, I’ll be back in five minutes and then you can talk,’” Manchester United midfielder Casemiro said in an interview with former England defender Rio Ferdinand.

“After that, he came back, spoke, and everyone was like: ‘OK. This guy is different.’”

It was a classic Ancelotti moment: calm, simple and human. Even his Portuguese lessons seem to reflect that.

“I had prepared a lesson on imperative verbs,” Piantino, who also works as a teacher with other players and coaches from Brazil and abroad, recalled.

“The material was ready, with a presentation explaining how imperatives work in Portuguese. But as soon as I started, he pointed it out: ‘No, no, no, I don’t communicate like that. I don’t use imperatives. It’s not my style to give orders like that.’”

Ancelotti was on Italy’s bench as assistant coach when Brazil won the 1994 World Cup in the United States. Now, he returns with them, hoping to take the Selecao back to the top in his own way.

المصدر: MyJoyOnline (GH)