Carlo Ancelotti was stepping into the unknown.
Although he has worked with 43 Brazilian players before in his coaching career, the Italian boss has been to the South American country once before – back in the early 2000s on a trial basis as Juventus manager.
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So when, after back and forth, he reached an agreement in May 2025 to lead Brazil as its first foreign coach at the World Cup, he knew he had to hit the ground running.
He did so.
In one of his first meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Ancelotti saw a number of local CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) staff trying to speak Spanish and even Italian to him.
“No, no,” he replied with a smile on his face.
“I’m the one who has to make an effort to speak Portuguese here.”
The 66-year-old knew that if he was going to win over the Selecao’s proud fans and always considered himself independent in football, he had to do it.
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He became so focused that he hired a Portuguese teacher and committed to four lessons a week.
“I was surprised by his commitment,” Roberto Piantino, who worked with him in Portuguese, told BBC Sport.
“I remember when we finished the lesson on Friday, and, as always, I asked him when he wanted to do the next one. He said: ‘Tomorrow.’ But that was Saturday. I said: ‘Yes, no problem.’ That meant 9 am in Vancouver [where Ancelotti lives with his wife].
“It happened more than once. That showed me how serious he was about learning.”
Sunday’s 6-2 thrashing of Panama in their penalty shoot-out before the start of the World Cup is encouraging.
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Bournemouth’s Rayan scored his first goal for his country, with Brentford’s Igor Thiago looking on, while Vinicius Jr, Casemiro and Lucas Paqueta and Danilo also found the net.
Ancelotti will need all the tools at his disposal though – including the Portuguese – for the size of the challenge ahead this summer: preventing Brazil from setting an unwanted record.
These five champions last won the World Cup in 2002 and have never won six medals without lifting the trophy.
However, there is a strong case that this coach who once coached Real Madrid and Chelsea is the right man for this job.
“One of the things Brazil needed most was a manager who was bigger than the players,” former national team player Walter Casagrande, now a respected football researcher, argued.
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Ancelotti ticks that box: a record five Champions League titles and trophies across Europe’s five biggest leagues carries real weight, even in a dressing room with Neymar, Vinicius Jr, Raphinha and co.
A ‘world champion’ in adaptability
When appointing Ancelotti, Brazil faced one of the worst events in its football history: a national team led by a foreign coach.
Even with an Italian CV, there was initial resistance.
“We are the only country that has won the World Cup five times, it’s not that a foreigner should never coach the national team, but I would have wanted a coach from Brazil,” said Cafu who won the World Cup twice in 1994 and 2002.
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At the Brazilian coaches’ event in November, the tension around the topic was unthinkable.
When Ancelotti went on stage to be honored, he found himself listening to the speeches of his countrymen criticizing the presence of foreign managers in Brazil. “I have always said that I don’t like foreign coaches in my country. We as coaches are the ones to blame for this attack,” said Emerson Leao who won the World Cup in 1970.
It was such an ordeal that Ancelotti’s son and assistant coach, David, left the event shortly afterwards.
But that was a very isolated episode in Ancelotti’s first year in charge.
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Despite the consistent results – six wins, two draws and three defeats in his first 11 matches – a recent survey from Quaest, a leading polling agency, found many Brazilians trust him.
According to the survey, 41% approve of his job, compared to 29% who do not.
With that support, the CBF moved quickly, renewing his contract until 2030 before he leads Brazil to the World Cup.
However, that was also a reflection of Ancelotti’s greatest strength: his ability to get people behind him.
Sources told BBC Sport that although he received the first draft of the contract at the beginning of April, he was reluctant to sign it for a month. The reason was that he wanted three other CBF employees – who he credited with helping him adapt to Brazil – to have their contracts extended until 2030.
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“He’s a chameleon,” said 1994 World Cup winner Leonardo, who worked with Ancelotti at AC Milan and Paris St-Germain both as a player and as an official.
“Wherever he goes, he gets used to the people, the team, the players, he is a world champion in that. If I ever buy a team, my coach Carlo, there is no other way.
“You enter into symbiosis with nature, that already happens here [in Brazil]. People love him.”
‘We have two of the five best players in the world’
Despite a tumultuous four-year cycle – among other things, Brazil sacked its federation president by court order, went through four different coaches and ended qualifying with its worst campaign ever – Ancelotti still believes he can deliver his sixth World Cup title.
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“We have two of the five best players in the world,” he repeated in the corridors of the CBF headquarters.
He is referring to Vinicius Jr of Real Madrid and Raphinha of Barcelona.
But then comes the hardest part: getting them to play for the Selecao the same way they do for their clubs. In Ancelotti’s bold 4-2-4 formation, that was not the case.
Sunday’s win was the third time the Italian has had the pair on the pitch together, the previous being a 1-0 win over Paraguay in June 2025 and a 2-1 defeat by France in March this year. However, in the final period, Raphinha came out at half-time. With Rodrygo and Estevao Willian still injured, making that partnership work will be very important.
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If that’s still a work in progress, the dressing room doesn’t exist. Ancelotti has listened to the players.
“In the match against Paraguay [in June 2025]we needed to win to enter the World Cup. During the break, many people were talking, talking, talking. Then he said: ‘Guys, what are you waiting for? I will smoke a cigarette, I will come back in five minutes and you will talk,” said Manchester United midfielder Casemiro in an interview with England defender Rio Ferdinand.
“After that, he came back, he spoke, and everybody said: ‘Okay. This guy is different.’
It was the time of classic Ancelotti: calm, simple and human. Even his Portuguese lessons seem to reflect that.
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“I had prepared a lesson on important actions,” recalls Piantino, who also works as a teacher with other players and coaches in Brazil and abroad.
“The story was fine, with an introduction explaining how the requirements work in Portuguese. But as soon as I started, he pointed out: ‘No, no, no, I don’t speak like that. I don’t use the necessary things. It’s not my style to give such orders. “
Ancelotti was on the Italian bench as an assistant coach when Brazil won the World Cup in the United States in 1994. Now, he returns with them, hoping to bring the Selecao back to the top in his own way.
