Managers do NOT get better with age… but Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti is the outlier as the 64-year-old seeks his FIFTH Champions League triumph

It’s been five years since Carlo Ancelotti walked into a room at Goodison Park, Everton, and began what we all thought would be the gradual end of a great career.

The great Italian was 60 years old. Every box was checked. We suspected he was still working simply because he didn’t really know how to stop.

The trajectory of that decade had gone through Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Napoli and then Everton. His direction of travel seemed fixed.

But Ancelotti’s has proven to be a career that does not want to die or gracefully accept the ravages of time, the passing of the years. So yesterday, not long before tea time, he walked into another room, this time at Wembley, ahead of what will be his seventh Champions League final as manager.

“Ten years ago I was in the final,” Ancelotti smiled, referring to Real Madrid’s victory over Atletico Madrid in Lisbon.

‘I’m older, but I still feel young. A lot has happened, but this experience still feels the same.”

There is a misconception in football that coaches and managers get better as they get older. The truth is, most of the truly great have reached the top of the arc sooner than they could have imagined.

Arsène Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, Fabio Capello, Marcelo Lippi and – even further back – even Brian Clough all had their best work in their rear-view mirror by the time they were in their early 60s. As if to prove his point, Mourinho was appointed coach of Fenerbahce in Turkey yesterday at the age of 61.

Ancelotti is – together with Sir Alex Ferguson – the outlier. Ferguson left Manchester United after winning a Premier League title at the age of 71. Ancelotti turns 65 next week and will be on the threshold of 67 by the time his current contract expires.

His Real Madrid team have won La Liga twice in the last three years and if they beat Borussia Dortmund in London on Saturday night, they can say the same about the Champions League.

The truth is that Ancelotti has always made it look easy, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Ancelotti, who left Everton for a second spell at Real in 2021.

‘We know that we have to enjoy this to the maximum, but then the worry starts that things could go wrong because we are so close to the most important thing in football, namely a Champions League.

“There’s a fear, a worry that comes from that. It’s a feeling we all have inside. We are very happy to be here, but when you achieve definitive success, it is so close that you start to worry. I know it’s going to start tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon.

‘A lot of fear is normal. The more fear you have, the happier you will be when you can ultimately win.”

The data shows that Ancelotti has been on the right side of this equation more often than not.

If Real win on Saturday night it would be their fifth Champions League win as a manager (three with Real and two with Milan) and he can add that number to the two European Cups won under the competition’s old format if player with the great Italian club.

This season his team has come close to exiting the competition twice. Real managed to beat Manchester City on penalties at the Etihad Stadium in the last eight and then scored two late goals to turn the defeat into a victory in the second leg of their semi-final against Harry Kane and Bayern at the Bernabeu.

“I have to say that this has happened so many times that it cannot be a coincidence,” Ancelotti said.

‘There is something special about this club. It is very important to study it. There’s definitely something special, but I don’t know what it depends on. It can be a mix of tradition and history and quality and character of the players.

“But it’s happened so many times that it just can’t be a coincidence.”

Ahead of the match in the Spanish capital early last month, Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel suggested it was important to simply play the game and not the myth of Real’s comebacks. He couldn’t do it.

Borussia Dortmund faces the same challenge on Saturday. The Germans themselves are not without breed in this competition. They won the competition in 1997 and lost a thrilling final here at Wembley to Bayern eleven years ago.

Either way, the task ahead of them is significant. Edin Terzic’s team finished fifth in the Bundesliga and saved their eye-catching results for Europe, where they defeated Atletico in the last eight and PSG in the semi-finals. Borussia did not concede a goal against the French team in either leg.

Terzic, once assistant manager to Slaven Bilic at West Ham, saw his team start the domestic season slowly but then saw the belief grow through a team followed to London by more than 30,000 supporters.

“I have enormous respect for Carlo Ancelotti,” said the 41-year-old.

‘He is a role model for all young coaches and I see myself as one of them.

‘But in my opinion you don’t play a final, you win a final. That is our clear goal. We are happy to be here, but we are ready to compete at the highest level.

‘If you play against Real Madrid ten times, it might be very difficult to win. If you play 34 times, it’s impossible. But when you break it down into one match, a final, anything is possible.

‘We have had sixty games to prepare for this. It is clear that Real have a role as favorites, but we don’t care.

“If we are brave and ready to show that we are not here to watch Real Madrid lift their next trophy, if we are here to give them a match, then we have a chance.”