Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti OSI ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈkarlo antʃeˈlɔtti]; born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who manages Premier League club Everton.

Ancelotti is one of only three managers to have won the UEFA Champions League three times (twice with Milan and once with Real Madrid), and one of only two to have managed teams in four finals. He has won the FIFA Club World Cup twice, managing Milan and Real Madrid. Ancelotti is also one of seven people to have won the European Cup or Champions League as both a player and a manager. He is regarded as one of the best and most successful managers of all time.

Nicknamed Carletto, Ancelotti played as a midfielder and began his career with Italian club Parma, helping the club to Serie B promotion in 1979. He moved to Roma the following season, where he won a Serie A title and four Coppa Italia titles, and also played for the late 1980s Milan team, with which he won two league titles and two European Cups, among other titles. At international level he played for the Italian national team on 26 occasions, scoring once, and appeared in two FIFA World Cups, finishing in third place in the 1990 edition of the tournament, as well as UEFA Euro 1988, where he helped his nation to reach the semi-finals.

As a manager, he has worked for Reggiana, Parma, Juventus, Milan, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Napoli and Everton, and has won domestic titles in Italy, England, France, Spain, and Germany.

Parma
Ancelotti began his career in 1974 with Parma. He made his professional debut in Serie C during the 1976–77 season, at the age of 18. Under manager Cesare Maldini, he was often deployed behind the forwards, or as a second striker, due to his eye for goal. Ancelotti excelled in this role and helped Parma to a second place in the Serie C1 girone A during the 1978–79 season, which qualified the team for the Serie B play-offs. In the decisive match in Vicenza, against Triestina, with the score tied at 1–1, he scored two goals, which gave Parma a 3–1 victory and sealed their place in Serie B the following season.

Roma
After attracting strong interest from Inter Milan, in mid-1979, Ancelotti transferred to Roma, and made his Serie A debut in a 0–0 draw against Milan on 16 September. Under manager Nils Liedholm, he was deployed as a winger or central midfielder and became one of the club's most important players in a team which featured the likes of Brazilian star midfielders Falcão and Toninho Cerezo, as well as Italian footballers Roberto Pruzzo, Bruno Conti, Agostino Di Bartolomei, and Pietro Vierchowod, immediately winning consecutive Coppa Italia titles in his first two seasons with the club. During his eight seasons at the club, he won the Coppa Italia a total of four times (1980, 1981, 1984, and 1986). After struggling with knee injuries, and managing second- and third-place league finishes in 1981 and 1982, Ancelotti helped lead the team to win a historic Italian championship in 1983, the club's second ever league title in their history. The following season, he even helped Roma to win another Coppa Italia title and reach the European Cup final in 1984, although missed the final through injury as Roma were defeated by Liverpool on penalties at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. He was named the team's captain in 1985 under new club manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, and served as a mentor to the young midfielder Giuseppe Giannini, as Roma won the Coppa Italia, but once again narrowly missed out on the league title during the 1985–86 Serie A season, finishing in second place behind Juventus.

Milan
From 1987 until 1992, Ancelotti played for Milan, and was a key part of the successful squad that won the Serie A title in 1988, consecutive European Cups in 1989 and 1990, two European Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and a Supercoppa Italiana under manager Arrigo Sacchi. During this time, Milan played with one of their finest teams ever assembled in that decade under the financial backing of club president Silvio Berlusconi, with Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Alessandro Costacurta as defenders; Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit and Roberto Donadoni as midfielders; and Marco van Basten upfront. One of Ancelotti's most memorable moments with Milan was when he received a pass from Ruud Gullit, dribbled around two Real Madrid players and netted a powerful long-range shot during the Rossoneri's 5–0 thrashing of Real Madrid in the 1989 European Cup semi-finals. He went on to play all 90 minutes in Milan's 4–0 dismantling of Steaua București in the final.

The following season, Ancelotti suffered an injury to his left knee in the quarter-finals of the European Cup against KV Mechelen which forced him to miss the semi-finals, although he was able to return in time to help Milan defend their title against Benfica in the final, held in Vienna. Following Sacchi's departure, he won a second Serie A title under replacement manager Fabio Capello during the 1991–92 Serie A season, as Milan won the title undefeated, but persistent knee injuries and competition from youngster Demetrio Albertini limited his playing time, and eventually forced him into premature retirement at the end of the season, at the age of 33. He played the final match of his career with the club in a 4–0 home win over Hellas Verona on 17 May 1992, in which he came off the bench in the final 20 minutes of the game and scored two goals, and was given an ovation by the fans.

International career
Under manager Enzo Bearzot, Ancelotti made his Italy national team debut and scored his first and only goal on 6 January 1981 in a one-off tournament against the Netherlands, which ended in a 1–1 draw. He was very likely to be capped for the 1982 World Cup campaign, but a dramatic knee injury forced him away for several months, as Italy went on to win the tournament without him.

He was a part of Italy's World Cup squad in the 1986 World Cup, where he did not make a single appearance, however, as both he and Paolo Rossi struggled during the team's fitness tests, due to the altitude of the region, and were replaced in the starting line-up by Fernando De Napoli and Giuseppe Galderisi respectively.

Under new Italy manager Azeglio Vicini, he was also a key member of the Italy squad that reached the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 1988, and was also set to represent his nation at the Summer Olympics in Seoul that summer. An injury to the meniscus of his right knee, however, prevented him from taking part in the tournament, where Italy ultimately managed a fourth-place finish.

Ancelotti later went on to play in the 1990 World Cup on home soil under Vicini at the age of 31, although an injury in the second group match against Austria once again limited his appearances in the competition to just three, and kept him on the sidelines until the third-place final against England, in which he returned to help Italy to a 2–1 win.

Ancelotti made a total of 26 performances for the Italian national side, and announced his retirement from international football in 1991, making his final Italy appearance under Arrigo Sacchi.

Style of play
A world-class player, Ancelotti was a creative, cautious, and efficient midfielder who was known for his leadership, skill, composure on the ball, and organisational ability; he is regarded as one of the best Italian midfielders of his generation. Although he lacked pace, as well as notable physical and athletic characteristics, he was a highly talented, yet hard-working, combative, and tenacious team-player, who was competent defensively, but who above all possessed excellent technical ability, tactical intelligence, vision and passing range, as well as a powerful and accurate shot from outside the area; his wide range of skills enabled him to contribute to his team's offensive play with goals and assists. A versatile midfielder, he was capable of being deployed in several positions: while he was usually deployed as a playmaker in the centre of the pitch during his time with Milan under Arrigo Sacchi, he often played on the wings during his time with Roma, and was also capable of playing as an attacking midfielder, or even in a box-to-box role; in his youth, he was often deployed in a more advanced role as a forward, usually as a second striker. As with Milan he was often deployed in front of the back-line, as a central or defensive midfielder, a position which allowed him to set the tempo of his team's play after winning back possession; he is regarded as having been the mentor and predecessor of Demetrio Albertini and Andrea Pirlo in the deep-lying playmaking role at the club. Despite his ability, his career was affected by several injuries, which limited his playing time, and forced him into retirement in 1992 at the age of 33.

Reggiana
Ancelotti undertook his coaching studies at Coverciano, where he penned a research article entitled "Il Futuro del Calcio: Più Dinamicità" (English: "The Future of Football: More Dynamism"). After serving as an assistant manager with the Italy national team under his former Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi between 1992 and 1995, and reaching the 1994 World Cup final, Ancelotti began his managerial career with Serie B side Reggiana in 1995, where he immediately aided the team in achieving promotion to Serie A; he left after the 1995–96 Serie B season, finishing with a record of 17 wins, 14 draws, and 10 losses in his only season with the club.

Parma
"I said, ‘No, you have to play striker.’ Baggio went to another club. That year Baggio scored 25 [actually 22] goals – for Bologna! I lost 25 goals! Big mistake."

Ancelotti joined Parma the following season, a team which had recently enjoyed several years of domestic and European success under the previous manager Nevio Scala, and which contained several promising young players, including future Italy stars Gianluigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro. Ancelotti made his debut in the Coppa Italia in a 3–1 loss to Pescara. Ancelotti made several changes at the club, implementing a rigorous Sacchi-inspired 4–4–2 formation, and initially deploying creative forward Gianfranco Zola out of position on the left wing in order to accommodate Hristo Stoichkov up-front, although both players were later eventually sold by the club after lack of playing time due to struggling to perform in this system. With the new attacking partnership of Enrico Chiesa and Hernán Crespo, Parma finished second in Serie A during the 1996–97 season under Ancelotti, which guaranteed them a place in the next edition of the UEFA Champions League. The following season, the club had agreed to sign another Italian creative forward, Roberto Baggio, but Ancelotti impeded the transfer as he once again did not feel that a player like Baggio would fit into his tactical plans. Ancelotti later stated that he regretted this decision, stating that at the time he believed that the 4–4–2 was the ideal formation for success, and that offensive playmakers were not compatible with this system. After suffering a first round elimination in the 1997–98 Champions League, and a semi–final appearance in the Coppa Italia, Ancelotti was only able to guide Parma to a sixth-place finish in Serie A during the 1997–98 season, and was sacked at the end of the season, despite qualifying the team for next season's UEFA Cup.