Real Madrid can still win the Copa del Rey and the Champions League this season - and if they do, Ancelotti will make club history.
After Real Madrid’s Copa del Rey semi-final win over Barcelona on Wednesday, Carlo Ancelotti remains in a position to finish the season level with Zinedine Zidane as the club’s second-most decorated head coach.
Ancelotti within two Zidane’s Real Madrid trophy tally
Zidane, who was Ancelotti’s assistant in the 2013/14 campaign, lifted 11 trophies during his two stints as Bernabéu boss. Ancelotti - also across two spells - currently has nine. Although Madrid are all but out of the LaLiga title race this term, Los Blancos have the chance to claim the Copa when they face Osasuna in May’s final in Seville, and remain in contention to retain their Champions League crown. The 14-time continental champions take on Chelsea this month in the quarter-finals of Europe’s elite club competition.
The most successful coach in Madrid’s history is Miguel Muñoz, who steered the team to 14 pieces of silverware during just over 13 seasons in charge in the 1960s and early 70s. It’s worth noting that Muñoz’s time at the Madrid helm came before the inception of the Spanish Super Cup, and coincided only with the first two years of the UEFA Super Cup. Both events have served to boost the trophy collections of coaches in the modern era.
Ancelotti setting records in Bernabéu dugout
As he approaches the end of his fourth season as Madrid boss Ancelotti has so far coached the club to two Champions League titles, one LaLiga, one Copa del Rey, two Club World Cups, two European Super Cups and one Spanish Super Cup.
In the process, he has set a number of records. He is the only Madrid coach who has won every competition he’s taken part in at least once (Zidane didn’t manage to lift the Copa del Rey). In addition, Ancelotti has now won more Champions Leagues than any other coach, having secured two European titles with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007, and two more with Madrid in 2014 and 2022. In the Spanish capital, the 63-year-old has also become the only coach to secure the domestic championship in all five of Europe’s major leagues: he won Serie A with Milan in 2003, the Premier League with Chelsea in 2010, Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2013, the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in 2017, and LaLiga with Madrid last term.
In his time as a coach in the ‘big five’ leagues, Ancelotti has taken charge of 860 matches. The only men who beat that total are Arsène Wenger (1,135), Jupp Heynckes (906) and Sir Alex Ferguson (882). Unlike the Italian, however, none of those three coached in every major league.
At Madrid, Ancelotti has coached the fourth-highest number of games (220), behind only Muñoz (605), Zidane (263) and Vicente del Bosque (248). Of all the Bernabéu bosses who have overseen at least 50 games, his 72.3% win rate is the best.