Brazil entrusts the Seleção to Carlo Ancelotti to chase Hexa, the sixth title of a World Cup that has been missing for over twenty years. But the choice of the Italian technician divides the country: starting with the president Lula who triggered a very heavy controversy with the choice of the national federation. The debate is very accepted throughout the country. Is Ancelotti really the ideal choice to make Brazil again who is facing one of the most delicate moments of his football history?

Another way of living and seeing football

We asked Wandao, Wanderson Reis de Oliveira, Brazilian blogger and commentator among the most passionate when it comes to Seleçao: “For a Brazilian who considers Seleçao almost a religion there is something surreal in seeing Carlo Ancelotti with the suit of our national team. There is no doubt that he is a winner, a man of rare stature and of great ability but is also the most away from our way of living. Ancelotti is a technician who has represented, in style, silences and pragmatism, the epic of the most reflective and disenchanted European football.

A choice against nature?

The appointment of Carlo Ancelotti at the helm of Brazil is an epochal event, and not only for the stature of the character. It is in fact the first foreign technician driving the Seleção since 1965, when the Argentine Filpo Núñez was called for a single friendly match – a fleeting and immediately forgotten experiment. So much so that many databases don’t even mention it. Ancelotti will be the third non -Brazilian coach in the history of Seleçao, 102 years old … The first was the Uruguayan Platero, in office for five years. The second was the Portuguese Joreca, in office together with the Brazilian Costa for a few months in 1944. The team lost the South American placed according to Argentina behind Argentina, which pierced Verdeoro with a triplet of Mendez. In a century, Brazil has always protected its bench as you do with a national symbol, an identity relic. That’s why Ancelotti’s arrival is not only a technical decision, but a real political act. And like any political act, it is destined to divide.

Lula, the criticism that gives voice to the people

If there was a need for a proof of the symbolic scope of this appointment, it was enough to listen to the words of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: “I have nothing against foreign coaches, but in Brazil there are better technicians, some of the best in the world. The one in Ancelotti is a call that impresses us and that debases the image of the football of our country which for Brazil is a primary value industry …”.

Lula has been in controversy for years with the top of the CBF, the Brazilian football federation, one of the most important and influential institutions in the country. Lula is not only the head of state: he is also a passionate fan and a fundamental actor of the country’s cultural system. And his criticisms in this historical moment of very little satisfactions weigh a lot. Brazil is back from a black season: climbed by Colombia in the group stage after a victory and two ski lifts, and then eliminated in the quarterfinals of Copa America from Uruguay.

Investment or provocation?

The contract signed by Ancelotti provides for an annual salary of over 10 million euros, including staff, more or less what he earned for Real and what had already been proposed to him two years ago. Officially the contract would close after the 2026 World Cup: 14 months in all. And it provides a 31 million reais bonus (another five million euros) in case of the world winnings. Numbers that impression, especially in a country marked by enormous social inequalities, where the CBF has often been accused of opacity and waste, between favoritism and scandals. “In this scenario, entrusting the national team to one of the most paid coaches in the world is a choice that may appear arrogant or desperate, it depends from the point of view … – they write on Globo – Some interpret this decision as a sign of ambition, because Finally Brazil returns to think big. But others see it as an act of football colonization, the umpteenth demonstration that Europe commands, and the global south performs”.

The paradox of Ancelotti: silent leader in a world that screams

Carlo Ancelotti is definitely not a ‘Latin’ technician. It does not shout, it does not gesticulate, it does not make proclamations. He is a man who has made calm and respect his personal and professional figure. He won everything everywhere, often without ever imposing himself with his fist, but seducing the locker room with logic, emotional intelligence and human management. The partnership with his son Davide is extraordinary: the role with great intelligence and the weight of Ancelotti Jr are divided is really very significant. Often little considered. In addition, Ancelotti had the ability and humility to learn the language wherever he trained. In Brazil there are already videos and memes that show it on social media while talking Portuguese. Obviously they are fake.

But Brazilian football is also theater, narrative, mass drive. It is the country of Scolari, Tite, Zagallo, Parreira: men who made their rhetoric available to Seleçao who called ‘homeland’ and who transformed every press conference into cinema. Ancelotti is expected at the passage and risks seeming a foreign body in this context, a viewer rather than a protagonist.

Kaká’s involvement: symbolism and mediation

A name, however, could represent the perfect cultural zipper between Brazil and Ancelotti: Kaká. Former Golden Ball, Brazilian with European education, emblematic footballer of Ancelotti’s latest Milan, Kaká has already achieved UEFA courses, Fifa, an Harvard master’s degree, and has said he was ready for a new phase of his career. His entry into the staff in Brazil is already taken for granted. It is not just a technical choice, but a symbolic operation of reconciliation. Kaká is the smiling face that can make the Brazilians digest the idea of ​​an Italian coach. The Guarantor of the Verdeoro soul inside a locker room that risks being perceived as “colonized”.

A generation in crisis? Or an alibi ready for use?

Lula has launched another hard critic: “This generation is not up to the past”. A statement that makes noise and that implies a preventive excuse: it will not be Ancelotti’s fault if we don’t win. The talent simply is not there. Or at least it is much more dispersed than thirty years ago. Brazil at the moment has no symbol men. The times of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo or Romário are far away, but Brazil still has Vinícius Jr. – considered one of the great sponsors of Ancelotti CT – and also Rodrygo, endrick, and a series of interesting young people that Ancelotti aims to enhance. The truth is that, rather than missing talent, a stable system seems to be missing, a culture of continuity that allows these players to blossom in the national context.

The calendar: everything immediately

Ancelotti will be presented in Brazil on May 26th. His first Seleçao will officially debut on June 5 in Guayaquil against Ecuador, then on June 10 against Paraguay. Two qualifying matches that, in the current context, are already worth more than a simple general test. Brazil is fourth in a South American qualifying tournament in the World Cup until this point very disappointing. Ancelotti will only have 10 games available before the final list for the 2026 world championship. Very little time. A long -term manufacturer, not a “cup and via” resolver, called to a completely new company to which it will have to be forced to adapt.

Conclusion: a test bench for global football

Ancelotti’s arrival in Brazil is not just sports news. It is a contemporary global litmus litmus test. A world where national identities collide with internationalization, where competence wins over the flags, even if the flags – especially in Brazil – still count. Ancelotti’s challenge will not just win. It will be convinced. Prove that Brazil can be guided by remaining Italian, but loving Futebol. A mission not impossible, but almost.