Carlo Ancelotti is one of the best and most decorated football managers in the game’s long history with a successful pedigree in the Champions League that epitomises this.
‘Don Carlo’ as he is known in Spain – or ‘King Charles’ in Italy – has lifted the continent’s most prestigious trophy on five occasions as a coach, for two different clubs, and it’s a record haul that will very likely never be equalled.
| Per year | €11,405,184.00 | £9,600,313 |
| Per month | €950,432 | £800,026 |
| Per week | €219,330 | £184,621 |
| Per day | €31,247 | £26,302 |
| Per hour | €1,301 | £1,095 |
| Per minute | €21 | £17 |
It’s the same number as Pep Guardiola and Helenio Herrera combined. The same number as Bob Paisley and Arrigo Sacchi. It’s one more than Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho when their European triumphs are put together. You get the picture.
If that were not impressive enough he has also won the competition twice as a player, an integral part of a remarkable and unforgettable AC Milan side.
Elsewhere, trophies have been a constant across a footballing career that heralds this quietly-spoken genius as a true great.
Ancelotti won three Serie A titles as a midfielder for Roma and Milan before entering the dug-out and winning a further Scudetto. He has won the league in four different countries. He has even guided Italy to a World Cup semi-final in his playing days.
Naturally, such a colossal collection of feats has brought a similar tally of individual merits, far too many to mention here. Let’s just say that he’s in every hall of fame that exists while his coach of the year awards – in various guises – would fill a large trophy cabinet on their own.
All told it has been half a century’s worth of unremitting stylish football and triumphs and it all began on a farm just outside of Reggiolo, Italy.
How Much Is Carlo Ancelotti Worth?
Ancelotti’s itinerant managerial career has resulted in one lucrative contract after another, with almost all of them fully paid off on his departure.
His two year stint at Chelsea is a case in point. On £6m a year at Stamford Bridge, the Italian was paid for three years despite being sacked after two. It was the same at Bayern. PSG also.
Presently, the 65-year-old is on £9.6m per annum at Real and this makes him the fourth highest earning coach in world football. This in itself surprises given his outstanding pedigree and imperious track record.
Regardless, the farmer’s son from Reggiolo won’t be taking out any quick loans anytime soon. A lifetime spent at the very pinnacle of the game has earned Carlo Ancelotti a net worth in excess of £50m.
Playing Career
Ancelotti was born on June 10th, 1959, in Reggiolo, a small town situated in the north of Italy.
His father was a farmer, who taught his son values he would later transfer to the pitch and dug-out. “It was a really peaceful childhood,” he revealed in 2021. “My father was never angry and was always calm and patient.”
These inherited qualities so often came to the fore across a playing career that extended to nearly two decades though intriguingly this wasn’t the case at first.
When coming through at Parma, a teenage Ancelotti was deployed as a second striker, entrusted with firing the goals that got I Gialloblu promoted to the second tier.
After two years at the Stadio Ennio Tardini he moved to Roma where he was reimagined as a winger in a wonderful team that also featured Falcao, Bruno Conti and Pietro Vierchowod, a criminally under-rated centre-back to this day.
Naturally, such an array of elite talent went on to secure a league title.
It was around this time too, in the early Eighties, when Ancelotti was called up to play for his country, making his international bow in 1981. Injury kept him out of Italy’s triumphant 1982 World Cup campaign but he would feature in ’86 and ’90, the latter held on home soil.
By 1990 of course, Ancelotti was widely recognised as one of the most stylish midfielders around, a player of immense ability who typically chose to keep things simple. Having joined AC Milan three years prior, he ticked over a magnificent side who consecutively won the European Cup.
The roll-call of that Milan team is like a who’s who of legends. Baresi. Maldini. Gullit. Van Basten. Ancelotti.
He retired from the game at the very top, aged 33. He had won everything there was to be won.
Managerial Career
Ancelotti returned to the region where he grew up to begin his coaching odyssey, guiding Reggiana to Serie A. If that was a prosperous start however Ancelotti soon found management to be a steep learning curve.
At Parma, a club that had recently scaled unprecedented heights, he oversaw several near-misses, finishing second in the league and exiting tournaments at the semi-final stage.
At Juventus, his next appointment, he orchestrated consecutive runner-up finishes, incredibly receiving his P45 at half-time on the final day of the second season, when the Zebras conceivably still had a chance of winning the title.
It was at Milan where everything clicked, forging a formidable outfit across his eight years there.
It was Ancelotti who first converted Andreas Pirlo to a deep-lying playmaker role where he artfully schemed behind Rui Costa, Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko. Add Hernan Crespo and Filippo Inzaghi into the mix too and is it any wonder that the Rossoneri were routinely backed in the football betting to win trophies.
Twice they won the Champions League, losing a third when Liverpool pulled off a miracle in Istanbul.
Chelsea came next, a Premier League title garnered in his first season, and from there a successful, if short, tenure at PSG.
In 2013, he took on the infamously twitchy reins at Real Madrid and again success arrived early, Los Blancos winning their first Champions League for 12 years in his opening campaign.
From there, Ancelotti embarked on a European tour of great clubs with Bayern Munich first up, and another league title claimed. After that came Napoli and 18 months at Everton.
But he was always destined to return to Madrid where his unflappable temperament and tactical flexibility is well-suited, balancing out the club’s turbulent nature.
In the last three years, the Spanish giants have dominated domestically and conquered Europe a further two times. What’s the betting this supremacy continues with Ancelotti at the helm.
Family Life
The grandmaster of elite football has two children, from his first wife Luisa Gibellini. His son Davide is now his assistant at Real, respected in his own right for his tactical insight and ability to spot talent.
In 2019, Ancelotti became a grandfather to twins.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
