Ten million, an armored car, and a private plane: this is how Ancelotti's deal with the Brazilian national team was finalized.

On October 26th of last year, Barcelona took the Bernabéu without hesitation (0-4). It was the first of four Clásicos that Real Madrid would lose to Hansi Flick 's team this season. But Carlo Ancelotti , who knows Florentino Pérez very well, knew it would be impossible to overturn that 0-4 deficit. Halfway between knowledge and intuition, the Italian ended his stay at the club in June and once again opened the door to the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), which had already tried to sign him last season (their last contact had been a year earlier, in December 2023). That is the starting point of a signing that has been brewing for months until, in the hours before the second leg of that 0-4, resolved last Sunday with another Barça victory (4-3), Ancelotti returned the contract signed for next year to Brazil.

Throughout this time, both Florentino Perez and José Ángel Sánchez have had direct information from the Italian, who in turn was aware of the contacts the club had initiated with Xabi Alonso as early as the end of last year. The relationship between both parties, in that sense, has been reasonably honest. The president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues , entrusted the operation to a Brazilian businessman, Diego Fernandes , who has always worked hand in hand with a Spanish agent, Álvaro Costa , a man with good connections in Brazil. They, along with two people very close to the coach, have been the ones who have carried the weight of the negotiations. The images of Diego Fernandes in the match against Arsenal and even in the Copa del Rey final (where an agency offered photographers 300 euros for a picture of him in the stands) were attesting to the fact that the talks were moving forward.

There were several meetings spread over lunches and dinners. Almost all in Madrid. At one of them, Carlo Ancelotti, reviewing the conditions, raised his eyebrow even more. "Why an armored car?" he asked. His interlocutors explained that it's common in Rio de Janeiro for celebrities to always travel in a car with those characteristics (insecurity is one of the main problems in the city, which consistently appears on lists of the most dangerous in the world). Because Ancelotti will be living in Rio de Janeiro, in the exclusive Leblon area, a short distance from the CBF headquarters in Barra de Tijuca, unlike his son Davide , who, if he doesn't join one of the many teams he has ( Rangers, Leipzig, Como, etc. ), would continue with his father, but he would certainly live in Madrid and travel for matches.

All the meetings were held in Madrid. All but one. The one held in London on Monday, April 28, which sparked the rumor, spread by some media outlets, that negotiations had broken down, when that wasn't true. In fact, the bulk of the documents (which formalized a salary, according to Globo Esporte, of almost €10 million for this year ending with the World Cup, specifying that Carlo will have access to a private plane whenever he wants to travel, etc.) began to be drafted after that meeting. Ancelotti, who in recent months has contacted Casemiro and Neymar , among others, to sound them out and see how to facilitate his arrival, signed, according to some sources, on the Saturday before traveling to Barcelona (other sources speak of Friday).

Over the past week, all parties, including Real Madrid, agreed to make the farewell and the signing public after El Clásico, regardless of what happened in that match. This was partly due to Ednaldo Rodrigues' haste, seeing how a 2023 fraud case once again threatens his position and wants to leave Ancelotti's name on the table just in case. However, the Whites changed their minds sometime between Wednesday of last week and Monday of this week . Better written, Florentino Pérez changed his mind and decided not to make the statement he had already prepared to dismiss the most successful coach in Real Madrid history.

The club suggests that this is a sign of special affection for the coach, as the president believes that issuing the statement right after the defeat in Barcelona would be something like pointing fingers, as if there were discontent with him, and nothing, the club insists, could be further from the truth. The fact is that Ancelotti had to appear at the press conference yesterday in an unlikely situation , having been announced as Brazil's coach but without having been "fired" by Real Madrid. And his nonverbal language suggested that he didn't like it. Also in some of his responses, more cutting than usual, as if he were biting his tongue to ensure that the love affair he has maintained with the club since his arrival, especially in this second stage, isn't tainted by a last-minute disagreement in communication.