Carlo Ancelotti has been answering questions about his future for months. Mostly, the Real Madrid coach has done so with an easy-going smile, and a patient manner. But there’s been an edge to his media appearances in the last few weeks, as his team’s season has started to fall apart.
Saturday’s news conference before Madrid’s game with Celta Vigo was no exception. Ancelotti took 13 questions. Eight of them were — either directly or indirectly — about his future, the one subject he was determined to avoid. “I’m not angry, I’m calm,” Ancelotti insisted, ending with a laugh: “I know exactly what I have to do, what I’m going to do, and what I’m doing, which is not talking about my future. I know that disappoints you [the media] but I don’t care!”
Not so long ago, Ancelotti’s stock response when pressed on his future was always the same: he had a contract at Real Madrid until June 2026, and he intended to honour it. But the situation has changed. At Real Madrid, like at any other club, results dictate a manager’s future. But at Real Madrid, unlike at any other club, only the very best is good enough.
And Real Madrid this season haven’t been the best. In LaLiga, they go into Sunday’s Clásico four points behind leaders Barcelona. But that four-point gap doesn’t reflect the chasm in quality, and performance, between these two teams in 2024-25. Hansi Flick’s Barcelona have thrilled, scoring 91 goals in 34 league games — that’s 2.68 per game — and delighting fans with an instantly recognisable, high-risk, high-tempo style of football. Meanwhile, Ancelotti’s Madrid have struggled to find any identity at all, the squad ravaged with injuries, and the coach unable to fit his players’ abundant attacking talents into an effective unit.
Madrid’s Clásico results so far this season have been brutal: a 4-0 home defeat in LaLiga on Oct. 26, a 5-2 loss in the Spanish Supercopa on Jan. 12 and a 3-2 defeat after extra time in last month’s Copa del Rey final. Those are the kind of results that tend to get Real Madrid managers fired, and that’s without even mentioning the team’s meek, 5-1 aggregate elimination to Arsenal in the Champions League.
Yes, Madrid could still win LaLiga. Beat Barça at Montjuïc on Sunday (stream LIVE at 10:15 a.m. ET on ESPN+) and the gap at the top will be cut to one point with three games left, with Madrid needing their rivals to slip up just once more. But Ancelotti’s fate — barring an entirely unexpected, late twist in the saga which would come as a surprise to all parties — has already been decided, regardless. As the man himself said at the weekend: “I have a lot of affection for my club, for my players and the fans. And I respect them. So I’ll talk about my future on May 25 [after the last game of the season], and not before.”
Is Ancelotti leaving Real Madrid?
That’s the expectation from both the club and the coach, after a season which has failed to live up to expectations. Ancelotti’s Madrid have been unconvincing all year, with those Clásico results the standouts, as well as the team’s underwhelming Champions League league phase. They lost to Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool, requiring them to beat Manchester City in the knockout playoff round just to get to the round of 16.
But it’s in the last month that the wheels really started to come off: conceding four goals at the Bernabéu to Real Sociedad in the Copa del Rey, losing 2-1 at home to relegation-threatened Valencia, and then the 3-0 thrashing by Arsenal at the Emirates, which they couldn’t overcome in the second leg. Being knocked out in the Champions League quarterfinals isn’t good enough at Madrid, who’ve won six of the last 11 editions, three of them under Ancelotti.
The Copa del Rey final was a chance to salvage some pride; Madrid improved, but couldn’t finish the job, losing in extra time. Now they’re left relying on an unlikely turnaround in LaLiga.
There are some mitigating factors, notably Madrid’s season-long injury crisis — defenders Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão have been badly missed. But even given that, Ancelotti hasn’t been able to unlock this team’s potential, and he knows it.
There’s no room for sentimentality at Madrid. The club that famously sacked Vicente del Bosque the day after winning LaLiga in 2003. This season hasn’t been good enough, and that means Ancelotti will go.
So is he walking away, or is he being fired?
That’s a key question, for one simple reason: money. If Ancelotti were to resign — which he’s so far given no indication of doing — he’d be walking away from the last year of his contract, which is reported to be worth around €11 million a season, before tax. When you’re Real Madrid manager, it makes much more sense to wait to be fired, which is almost inevitable at some point, and then receive your payoff. Ancelotti’s predecessor, Zinedine Zidane — a unique figure, immune to the usual pressures of managerial life — is the only coach to resign in recent times, in 2021.
Madrid are also reluctant to fire Ancelotti, though, given the mutual affection and respect between the parties, and years of past success in happier times. The ideal scenario is a mutual agreement on the terms of Ancelotti’s departure, to be approved by the coach and club president Florentino Pérez. Sources have told ESPN that the pair were due to meet to discuss exactly that in recent days.
When will he go? And if everyone agrees, why isn’t it official already?
Because Real Madrid are still in the LaLiga title race, with El Clásico to play on Sunday. “We’re thinking about the present. We want to focus on fighting for the league until the last second of the last game,” Ancelotti said last weekend. Some reports from outside of Spain had suggested that the coach would go sooner, even immediately after the Copa del Rey final, but that was always highly unlikely.
A departure at the end of the season — after the last league game with Real Sociedad, on the weekend of May 25 — makes more sense, although the announcement might come days earlier, to allow the club to prepare an appropriate farewell for a legend. Madrid do consider their last LaLiga game to be the end of the season, though, and not this summer’s revamped Club World Cup.
Ancelotti is not expected to be in charge for the tournament, not least because that would further complicate his next step: taking charge of the Brazil national team in time for their FIFA World Cup qualifiers next month.
So it’s Brazil next for Ancelotti?
Ancelotti has long been the preferred candidate of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) to take charge of the men’s national team. CBF president Ednaldo Rodrigues openly described Ancelotti as his “plan A” back in 2023. Ancelotti was keen on the idea then, but ended up extending his Madrid contract until 2026.
Rodrigues still wants Ancelotti, valuing his unrivalled experience, man-management and pre-existing relationships with players like Vinícius Júnior, Militão and Rodrygo, although the timing is an issue. The CBF sacked previous coach Dorival Junior in March, after a calamitous 4-1 loss to Argentina, and need a new coach in place for June’s World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay.
The Brazil squad for those games is due to be announced on May 26, just a day after the LaLiga season ends. That’s been the root cause of some of the back-and-forth reports of Ancelotti either being on the brink of taking the Brazil job, or being out of the running. Sources told ESPN on May 1 that the CBF was, reluctantly, willing to wait for Ancelotti until the LaLiga title race is decided, but on Tuesday CBF national team director Rodrigo Caetano accelerated things, saying they expect to name their new coach by the end of next week “at the latest.”
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How would Trent fit in at Real Madrid with Alonso in charge?
Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens discuss how Trent Alexander-Arnold might fit in at Real Madrid if Xabi Alonso is named as Carlo Ancelotti’s replacement.
And who’s next for Real Madrid?
Short-term or long-term? Madrid’s long-term choice is Bayer Leverkusen‘s Xabi Alonso, and has been for years. When there were last doubts about Ancelotti’s future, in 2023, some might have wondered if Alonso was ready for the Madrid job, after just a year coaching at the top level. That’s not an issue now. Three years at Leverkusen have shown Alonso is absolutely ready, even if Madrid are still a significant step up.
Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro made clear last month that the Bundesliga club would not stand in Alonso’s way if he wants to join Madrid, and said a decision would have to be made “before the end of the season.” But Madrid will fly to Florida for the Club World Cup in mid-June, leaving little time — just a week or two — for Alonso to adjust to a new challenge. Racing headlong into a debut tournament, with minimal preparation, isn’t the ideal situation for a new coach.
That has led the club to contemplate an interim appointment, leaving Alonso to plan for 2025-26. Madrid’s favourite is Santiago Solari, the club’s director of football, who has experience stepping into the hotseat in difficult circumstances, as he did in 2018-19. Solari is ahead of other alternatives such as Castilla coach Raul González and under-19s coach Álvaro Arbeloa, but would face his own complications, such as his lack of coaching staff.
With drawbacks to both approaches, it’s not yet clear whether Madrid will take the interim route, or push for an early start for Alonso.
Ancelotti’s legacy at Madrid is secure — winning three Champions Leagues with the club made sure of that. And in time, this season’s disappointments won’t dent his reputation. All that’s left is to properly manage his exit.
He might not want to talk about his future, but — speaking in that news conference on Saturday — the Italian was certain that when the time comes, there would be no last-minute falling out.
“Whatever happens, it will be a fantastic farewell,” he said. “I’ll never have a fight with this club. I’ve never had one in six years, and I never will. I won’t even allow myself to argue with the club on my last day. Whenever it is, it will be beautiful.”
