Yesterday, Tuesday, on the eve of the match between Salzburg and Austria in the European Champions League, the outstanding Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti denied rumors that he was leaving Real Madrid at the end of the season, expressing his hope to remain with the royal club for “four additional years.”
Ancelotti, who is contracted until the summer of 2026, said: “I want to be very clear: I will never set a date for my departure from this club in my life. That day will come, but I don’t know when. It’s not up to me to decide. “He could come at any time.”
He continued with a smile on his face that the departure “may happen tomorrow, after a few matches, within a year, within five years… Florentino (club president) will continue for another four years and my goal is to stay for another four years alongside him.” “I hope we have a wonderful farewell party together.”
Ancelotti’s words constitute a clear response to the rumors that spread in the Spanish press this week about his departure at the end of the season, and to Real Madrid’s desire to sign its former midfielder Xabi Alonso, who is doing a wonderful job with his current German team, Bayer Leverkusen.
Ancelotti, who returned to Real Madrid in 2021 after a first experience between 2013 and 2015, touched on the important match that awaits his team today against Salzburg in the seventh and penultimate round of the unified group competitions, saying: “It is an important match because the first stage of this version of the Champions League supervised the… the end. We have to get as many points as possible, and we will see where we stand in the standings.”
The last two rounds will be crucial for the defending champion, Real Madrid, as Real Madrid ranks twentieth out of 36 after winning three matches and losing the same, but with a difference of 4 points from the direct qualification that the top eight places receive.
After hosting Salzburg, Real Madrid will face off next week with its French host, Brest, which ranks seventh with 13 points.
-Ancelotti said, “The only hope for us is to win the last two matches.” If we reach the playoffs, we will go into it with everything we have. “It is a very demanding schedule, but we are used to it.”
Real Madrid is counting in particular on French star Kylian Mbappe, who seems to have completely entered the atmosphere of the Royal Club after his suffering since his arrival last summer following the end of his contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
Mbappe touched on the difficult period he went through, saying: “I knew that these moments could happen and in the end I changed my mentality, because I told myself that I could not do worse than that, but only better, and that I had to prove that I was a player of the best quality. The high level, and that I can help this team.”
He stressed: “I did not come to Real Madrid to play poorly… In the end, I am very calm because it is normal for me to be exposed to criticism when I am a player of my position, with all the expectations surrounding me. You played badly, and it’s normal for people to talk bad about you, and when you play well, they talk good about you. But I knew I could turn things around, and that’s what I did.”
When asked about his absence from the French national team last November, he said: “There is no problem. My love for the national team has not changed…”, stressing: “I am just looking forward to returning in March and trying to help the team reach the semi-finals of the European League of Nations.”
