Carlo Ancelotti has been here, seen it, done it, raised an eyebrow, and if you can find a cooler dude in Paris this weekend, you have done remarkably well.
Twenty-four hours ahead of kick-off, Ancelotti sat in the Stade de France and was simply asked how he felt. “I’m enjoying it, I’m calm and I’m full of confidence,” he said - as if it needed saying. That has always been Ancelotti’s strength - if he is at peace with himself, he figures his players will be.
And Ancelotti ALWAYS looks at peace with himself and with his players. Positioned alongside the veteran Marcelo, Ancelotti explains: “I’m treating it naturally. Getting to the final is a big success - we know about the demands at this club and its history. It’s a big feat to get to this point. We’ve had a very good season and we are very close to achieving something huge this season.
“We are very calm in the camp, I am here to manage the game with the senior players helping the younger ones and there is a good atmosphere around the squad with lots of confidence running through the ranks.”
History beckons for 62-year-old Ancelotti who, somehow, often gets slightly forgotten when the cabal of elite European coaches is listed. Maybe it was that spell at Everton that got him demoted from the gold standard list.
But the Italian will eclipse them all if Real Madrid win a 14th European Cup in the State de France on Saturday night. It would be Ancelotti’s fourth triumph, taking him above Bob Paisley and Zinedine Zidane in the all-time managerial honours list.
He has already won as many European Cups as Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola combined, more than greats such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Vicente del Bosque and Jose Mourinho. By the way, he won it twice as a player - and don’t even get started on his cache of domestic trophies, both as player and manager. There is not enough time before kick-off.
Quite simply, Ancelotti is already front and centre of European football’s hall of fame. But not much more than three months ago, Ancelotti - after a 1-0 defeat in this city in the first leg of their Champions League tie against PSG - it was widely reported that he was under intense pressure from the Real Madrid hierarchy.
Fast forward to the end of May, Ancelotti has a LaLiga title in his locker and has taken care of Chelsea and the mighty Manchester City en route to this final. Now, standing in his way is the club that inflicted his only Champions League defeat, in Istanbul in 2005.
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Ancelotti says: “It is my fifth final and I have good memories of all of these finals. It’s strange to think about it but I think the best one was the final against Liverpool in 2005, but we lost it with AC Milan.
“That shows anything can happen in a final... so you have to enjoy it and not worry about what will happen. You have to enjoy it until the referee blows the final whistle and then it will be another story written.”
And if there is one manager in the world who can ENJOY these occasions, it is Carlo Ancelotti - the coolest dude in Paris.
