The old rules no longer apply
In the brutal economy of international soccer, national team coaches live and die by tournament results. Win a World Cup, become immortal. Lose in the quarterfinals, clean out your desk. It's a simple, merciless equation that has governed the profession since its inception.
Carlo Ancelotti just tore up that contract.
According to AS, the 66-year-old Italian is set to sign an extension with Brazil that will keep him in charge of the Seleção through the 2030 World Cup—regardless of what happens in 2026. He'll earn approximately €840,000 per month, making him comfortably the highest-paid national team manager on the planet.
Read that again. Brazil, the most demanding soccer nation on Earth, is giving a coach job security that transcends results. This isn't how things work. Except now, apparently, it is.
Why Brazil bent its own rules
The CBF pursued Ancelotti for years before finally landing him in May 2025, when his contract with Real Madrid expired. They understood what they were getting: the only manager in history to win league titles in all five of Europe's major leagues. A Champions League collector. A man who has managed Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Andrea Pirlo, and Kaká without ever losing a dressing room.
Since taking over, Ancelotti has managed eight matches. The results have been solid rather than spectacular—victories, a draw in Ecuador, a loss to Bolivia. Brazil qualified for 2026, though they were always going to. The real test comes next summer in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
But the CBF has seen enough. They've watched how Ancelotti operates: the calm demeanor, the tactical flexibility, the ability to manage egos without creating drama. In a federation that has churned through coaches with alarming regularity—remember Dunga's two failed stints? Tite's painful exit after Qatar?—stability itself has become the commodity.
The six-star obsession
Brazil haven't won a World Cup since 2002. That's 23 years and counting since Ronaldo's redemption tour in Japan and South Korea. For a nation that defines itself through soccer supremacy, this drought has become existential.
The 7-1 against Germany in 2014 remains an open wound. David Luiz recently offered harrowing details about that night—the tears, the paralysis, the complete psychological collapse. Every subsequent tournament has carried the weight of that trauma. Tite came closest in 2022, building perhaps Brazil's most talented squad in a generation, only to fall to Croatia on penalties in the quarterfinals.
Ancelotti represents something different: a European who has won everything at club level, unburdened by the specific neuroses of Brazilian soccer history. He can view the project with fresh eyes, build without the pressure of personal redemption.
The extension through 2030 suggests the CBF has embraced a longer vision. Win in 2026, and Ancelotti becomes a god. Lose, and he gets another chance to fix what went wrong. Either way, Brazil avoids the chaos of another coaching search, another reset, another cycle of hope and disappointment.
What this means for Italian soccer
There's a subplot here that hurts if you're Italian. Ancelotti was always the dream candidate to manage the Azzurri, the obvious choice to restore dignity after successive World Cup failures. Instead, he's committed his remaining elite years to Brazil.
At 66, a contract through 2030 means Ancelotti will be 71 when it expires. This is, realistically, his final act. Italy will have to find another savior.
For Ancelotti himself, the calculation makes sense. He's won everything at club level—there are no more mountains to climb in that arena. The World Cup is the one trophy missing from his collection. Winning it with Brazil, the most successful nation in tournament history, would cement a legacy that already rivals any coach who ever lived.
The gamble that isn't really a gamble
The CBF is paying a premium for certainty. In a sport defined by short-term thinking and reactive decisions, they've chosen patience. They've decided that Ancelotti's process matters more than any single result.
It's a radical bet on continuity in a world that rarely rewards it. And if Brazil lift that sixth star in 2026? The extension will look like the smartest investment in international soccer history.
If they don't? Well, at least they'll have four more years to get it right.
