Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti managed this Saturday to add his first Spanish League title with Real Madrid, becoming the first coach to win all five major European leagues. While he dreams of another Champions League record.
The 4-0 victory over Espanyol Este at the Santiago Bernabéu allowed him to lift the league title in his third season in Spain. This after his first two years at Real Madrid (2013-2015), when he was unable to win the national trophy.
The Italian coach had already been the first manager to win four of the five major European championships by winning the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in 2017.
Ancelotti thus surpassed the Portuguese José Mourinho, who has his triumphs in Spain with Real Madrid (2012), in Italy with Inter (2009, 2010). And also in England with Chelsea (2005, 2006).
The Italian coach now increases his legend on the bench by adding the Spanish League with Real Madrid to his previous titles in national championships.
Ancelotti won in England with Chelsea (2010), in Italy with AC Milan (2004), in France with Paris Saint-Germain (2013) and in Germany with Bayern Munich (2017).
‘Happy’ to return to Madrid: Ancelotti makes history by winning all five major European leagues
The Italian coach has managed to win his first Spanish League on his return to Real Madrid, after his first two years in which he was left at the gates.
In the 2013-2014 season, Ancelotti’s Real Madrid came third in a championship won by Atlético de Madrid. It was the only thing missing in 2014 in which he won the Champions League, the Copa del Rey, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
In the following campaign he was positioned as league runner-up behind FC Barcelona. Without being able to repeat the successful previous year and left the club at the end of the season.
“I am very happy to return here, to what I think is my home. I’m going to leave all my energy, all together. I have very good memories of the relationship I have had with everyone and I think we are going to repeat something good in this new challenge », Ancelotti said last June in his presentation as merengue coach, taking over from Zidane.
“It makes me proud to coach Real Madrid, it’s something very special,” Ancelotti added in an interview with former player and former merengue coach Jorge Valdano.
The bet has gone well for him and, although eliminated from the Copa del Rey, he has lifted a title that he longed for. And he is still in the race to win his second Champions League with Real Madrid and also make history in the European championship.
Four Champions?
Ancelotti aspires to win his second Champions League with Real Madrid, after the one he won in 2104 against Atlético de Madrid.
If successful, the Italian coach, winner of 23 trophies throughout his coaching career, would become the first coach to win four ‘Orejonas’.
To his triumph with Real Madrid on the European scene in 2014, Ancelotti adds the two titles he won in the top continental tournament with Milan (2003 and 2007).
If he reached the Champions League final and won it, Ancelotti would surpass the other two coaches who have three European Cups to their name, the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane and the Englishman Bob Paisley.
Zidane, Ancelotti’s second in Lisbon when Real Madrid beat Atlético 4-1 in extra time in the Champions League final, won the trophy three years in a row with the white team (2016, 2017, 2018).
Liverpool legend Paisley won the European Cup three times with the English team in 1977, 1978 and 1981.
Two legends of world football that Ancelotti will leave behind if he reaches the final and comes out the winner on May 28 in Paris.
