What do you get a man who has completed club football? The answer, perhaps, is the opportunity to add the international crown that could give him a claim to be the greatest ever.
For Carlo Ancelotti’s coaching career may have come full circle. As the most decorated veteran in the business, as when he was a rookie, he is in the United States for a World Cup. Ancelotti got a medal in 1994, but the silver of a runner-up, rather than the gold he came to accumulate in the next three decades. He was by Arrigo Sacchi’s side then, assistant manager to one of his mentors. Sacchi, one of the most influential managers ever, reached a World Cup final and lost to Brazil. So did Nils Liedholm, the avuncular Swede who, in the long term, may have proved the greater influence on Ancelotti. Liedholm captained Sweden in the 1958 final when Brazil won their first World Cup.
