It’s as official as it can possibly be. Despite numerous reports about negotiations breaking down because he was unsure about his safety, or didn’t want to live in Brazil, or didn’t want to deal with the political instability in the CBF, or that Brazil’s supreme court was investigating whether CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues had forged one of the signatures needed to secure his job, or that Saudi Arabian clubs were offering triple the salary, the CBF today announced Carlo Ancelotti as the new coach of the Brazil national team.
I, for one, am pleasantly surprised. I really thought Ednaldo Rodrigues, whose presidency up until this point had probably been the most embarrassing in the history of Brazilian football—with the original, ill-fated push for Ancelotti’s signature in 2023, the disastrous interim hirings of Ramon Menezes and Fernando Diniz and the historically bad results that followed, the increasingly calamitous year of Dorival Júnior, the federation’s apparently forgetting to sack Menezes from the junior teams even after embarrassing failures in the 2023 U-20 World Cup and 2024 Olympic qualification, and let’s not forget the ongoing saga surrounding whether Rodrigues’ mandate was even legitimate in the first place—would remain single-mindedly fixated on bringing in Ancelotti beyond all reasonable indications and find himself not only failing to sign his man but leaving himself without any remotely decent fallback options. As best I can tell, that will not be the case. Huzzah! Maybe the 2026 World Cup isn’t a lost cause!
Ancelotti, of course, is as blue-chip as football coaches come, and thus almost by definition, given the backwater that Brazil has become in the world of football tactics and coaching, the best coach the Seleção has had in decades. What previous Brazil coach is even in the same conversation as far as pedigree? Telê Santana, maybe Mário Zagallo, and I’m not sure there’s anybody else. He’s not the first foreign coach Brazil has ever had (in fact he’s the fourth), but he’s the first in sixty years, more than that if you consider that the team Filpo Nuñez coached—yes, an Argentine has, technically, coached the Seleção—was in fact the Palmeiras side he managed for his day job press-ganged into service as the Brazil national team for the inaugural game in Belo Horizonte’s Mineirão stadium. And in an age where the tactical ineptitude of Brazilian coaches is becoming more and more glaring, even as nativist elements in the country’s footballing “intelligentsia” try and insist there’s no problem and that Renato Gaúcho is totally the best option to lead the Seleção right now, we can only hope that Ancelotti, who has proven his worth at the absolute highest levels of European football, can improve Brazil’s performances and results to a degree that can help demonstrate the need for and benefits of more tactical sophistication and create a positive impact that lasts well beyond however long he spends in charge.
More immediately, hopefully he can fashion Brazil into genuine contenders for the 2026 World Cup. The utter mess of the last two and a half years makes it easy to forget that Brazil really does have some serious talent to work with. Vini Jr. was FIFA’s Best Men’s Player in 2024 and came second in the Ballon D’Or voting. Raphinha may well follow suit this year. The defensive spine boasts more top-quality center-backs than may even be able to fit in a single tournament squad, especially if Éder Militão’s knee ligaments ever stop exploding, and Brazil continues to produce a seemingly endless supply of quality goalies, even if Alisson isn’t much help in a penalty shootout. Even in the areas where we’re a bit thin, we can count on the likes of Bruno Guimarães and Andrey Santos in midfield, Matheus Cunha as a center-forward, or newly-minted Champions League finalist Carlos Augusto as a left-back.
Supposedly Ancelotti will start on May 26, in time for the June games against Ecuador and Paraguay, though given the time constraints he will share the responsibility for compiling the initial long list of players from which the 23-man final squad is chosen with Juan and Rodrigo Caetano from the CBF’s technical staff. He’ll hit the ground running with games against two of the most in-form teams in the confederation. With Brazil fairly comfortable but not yet assured of their spot at the World Cup, the extent to which he can instantly improve a team will be put to the test straight away.
Ednaldo Rodrigues, against all odds, got his guy at last. Let’s hope Carlo Ancelotti proves to be what the Seleção needs.
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