The "recycling" of Ancelotti's family: the call that "changed everything", a meeting in Italy and a staff with two young heirs

In the summer of 2021, after calls from Florentino Pérez and José Ángel Sánchez to test him about his return to Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti had decided with whom his first work meeting was going to be.. There were no doubts, because his previous experience in Valdebebas had left some gaps that now, more than five years later, he was not willing to repeat.. The Italian coach took his cell phone and scheduled a talk in person in Italy with Antonio Pintus, sergeant of the white team's physical preparation, key man for Zidane in the three consecutive Champions League and Florentino's galactic signing that same summer. I wanted to outline with him the new way of being of the coaching staff and the team.

That first call from Pérez “changed everything,” they say, for Ancelotti who was navigating in the middle of the Premier table with Everton, away from the big spotlight.. At that time, the coach took over at the Bernabéu and also assumed the Madrid idiosyncrasy.. He returned with the experience of the first time, with the good and the bad. And he learned from it to better prepare himself and his staff.. He knew that things were going to be different in every way, that Madrid's structure was different, that the physical preparation was Pintus's and that football, and he himself, had changed.

There began his “recycling” and the reconstruction of his family, a coaching staff capable of leaving behind the rumors and controversies of the first era, competent to learn everything about “modern football” that now elevates Madrid in the League and Champions and It allows him to overcome the adversities of injuries, and as familiar as he is prepared to manage a locker room without egos.

The success of Ancelotti's second landing has not been coincidence or luck. The Champions and the League of 2022, the Cup of 2023, the Super Cups, the continental semifinals of last year…. Carletto's Madrid has accumulated two and a half seasons of pure competitive elite and beyond the sporting planning, with extraordinary signings such as Bellingham, Camavinga or Rüdiger, the credit must also go to the bench. Ancelotti has been able to win in the midst of a reconstruction, to promote young people while firing (and firing) veterans, and to adapt to the needs of a club whose transfer plan does not change due to specific departures or injuries.. “There are no complaints or excuses,” he insists.

From Vecchi and Mauri to Davide and Francesco

“He is a much more intelligent Ancelotti, more energetic in the necessary points and who wears out much less than before in specialist departments,” explain those who live the day-to-day life of the coaching staff.. And if in 2013 his great assistants were the veterans Villiam Vecchi, goalkeeping coach, and Giovanni Mauri, physical coach, now they are Davide, his son, and Francesco, Giovanni's son.. The shadow of nepotism appeared during the early stages of the careers of both young people, more than a decade ago, but time, the good relationship with the footballers and especially the successes have proven right to “recycling”, as they call it in Valdebebas , from the Ancelotti family.

Madrid has also helped this, which has freed the Italian from physical and goalkeeping training and handed it over to “sergeant” Pintus and Lluis Llopis.. That is, Ancelotti's main assistants are solely and exclusively for tactical and technical matters.. In 2015, much of the friction came from what preparation was like.. And now the assistants are young, “two football sufferers”. Davide, 34, assistant coach, and Francesco, 35, technical analyst. They have grown up together, one is Carlo's son and the other as if he were. They act as counterpoints to the technician and have “a very important weight”. They see everything, players, leagues, new tactics…. And they summarize it to Carletto, who assumes a managerial role. By age, his connection with the squad is much stronger than the previous ones.

A locker room without egos

A young and “permeable” dressing room helps a lot, they admit in Valdebebas. A group that allows itself to be advised and that no longer responds to the leadership of yesteryear. Kroos and Modric, leaders due to competitive inertia, share tactical concerns and are the first to “let themselves be trained”. The staff, which includes the readapter García Parrales, maintains an Italian core completed by Beniamino Fulco (former nutritionist in the first stage and now an analyst) and Simone Montanaro (former from Sevilla who joined Ancelotti in Naples), in addition to various assistants in which there is a majority of Spaniards and transalpines. And on the roof of the pyramid, Ancelotti. Recycled and evolved manager, but with the usual double character. “He seems calm and lazy, but he's still the one in charge,” they admit at the club, where they have attended a session in which the Italian sent his players to the shower because he didn't like what he saw.. “When he pushes…” those who know him joke.

The rumor of Brazil and the offers to Davide

That family experienced some strange moments this season when Ancelotti was observing all the rumors about Brazil, his contract was not renewed and Davide was beginning to receive offers from abroad to become head coach.. The father knows that the son will make a career out of this and that he will take Mauri with him, but it will not be soon after Carletto's renewal as Madrid coach.

Carlo, Davide and Francesco are part of the daily meeting that takes place every morning in Valdebebas (or at the hotel on duty). Before or after training, the coaching staff gets together to discuss tactics, contrast opinions and, like good Latins, argue from time to time, even about things that have nothing to do with Madrid and do have to do with the future of football.. They have well-defined roles, both at work and personal levels.. Some are more shy, others, like Mauri, are hotter.. At the Bernabéu you sometimes see him running out of the bench to shout at a player. It's in his blood.

“Davide and Francesco are very much to blame for Ancelotti's evolution,” explain voices close to the locker room.. The coach does not watch 20 videos like before, but he triumphs due to the impetus of his young people, on and off the field. They are Carletto's men.