This season's Champions League is now underway, and perhaps the most anticipated fixture of the tournament's first matchday saw Inter Milan host Real Madrid. Real left the San Siro with all three points after winning 1-0. Rodrygo's late goal proved to make the difference.
Real's victory came in spite of the fact that Inter had the majority of the goalscoring opportunities. However, Los Merengues held firm throughout the onslaught, then took full advantage of their chance to snatch the win when it came.
This Champions League season could potentially have historic ramifications for Real. If they go on to win it all, one person at the Santiago Bernabéu will end the season as the greatest of all time.
I'm not talking about a player. The person I'm referring to is Real head coach Carlo Ancelotti, who returned to the Spanish capital this past off-season for his second stint at the club.
At the moment, I currently rank Ancelotti fourth all-time behind José Mourinho, Rinus Michels, and Helenio Herrera. However, another Champions League title would catapult the man from Emilia-Romagna ahead of all three and become, in my opinion, the unquestionable GOAT.
Ancelotti already has three Champions League title to his name: two with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007 as well as one with Real in 2014. It's difficult to overstate just what a fourth title would do for his reputation. If Real were to win the Champions League, Ancelotti would have four Champions League titles and stand alone as the all-time record holder. Even more remarkably, he would have won those four titles over a 19-year span.
Let that figure sink in. Nineteen years. That is unheard of. It would be an achievement which would likely never be repeated.
To put it into perspective, consider the three coaches who I currently rank ahead of Ancelotti. Mourinho won his first Champions League title in 2004. It has been 17 years since; he now struggles to keep pace with the tactical evolution which has taken place in recent years.
Nineteen years after Michels led Ajax to the 1971 European Cup, he was a year removed from an eighth-place finish in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen. Herrera, meanwhile, retired from coaching in 1981; this was 17 years after his first European Cup title.
Ancelotti isn't only defined by his longevity; his consistency is also absolutely astonishing. In addition to his three Champions League titles, he has reached the semifinals of Europe's leading club competition on four further occasions. These seven runs to the semis or better were achieved at the helm of four different clubs over 16 years, proving that Ancelotti is truly a coach who can extract outstanding results out of any squad and with just about any set of tactics, his blip at Everton notwithstanding.
If Ancelotti were to deliver a Champions League title to Real, it would easily rank as the greatest achievement of his legendary coaching career. Real are not among the favourites to win this season's tournament. Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, and reigning champions Chelsea are all seen as more likely to claim the title. One of the main reasons why I currently rank Mourinho as the greatest ever is the fact that he won both his Champions League titles as the coach of an underdog team. For Ancelotti to emulate the legendary Portuguese coach combined with everything else he has already done would end the GOAT debate.
In the more than two decades since Ancelotti first emerged as one of the best coaches on the in the world, the football landscape and metagame have changed numerous times. The fact that he has been able to remain so successful this entire time in spite of all these changes is a testament to his strategic genius and his immense knowledge of the players at his disposal and their strengths. Yet, in spite of all of this, Ancelotti continues to remain underrated by many fans as well as the media.
A victorious Champions League run this season would likely change that. Though it might not make Ancelotti the consensus pick for greatest football coach of all time, it would likely put him much closer to that status than most would think.
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