DPA/Berlin


Bayern Munich will have another top coach fresh from a sabbatical when Carlo Ancelotti takes over from Pep Guardiola in summer.
But that doesn’t mean that the 56-year-old Italian is a copy of the Spaniard who will leave in summer after the expiration of his three-year-contract.
Ancelotti did not spend his sabbatical in New York like Pep Guardiola did 2012-2013, he is rather recharging his batteries in Vancouver, the home town of his wife.
However, Ancelotti’s CV is similarly impressive as Guardiola from Barcelona and Munich as it includes three Champions League and two Club World Cup titles with AC Milan and Real Madrid as a coach after he also lifted both trophies twice as a Milan player.
Ancelotti has managed Chelsea to a Premier League and FA Cup double in 2010, won the French league in 2013 with Paris St Germain, the Serie A nine years earlier with Milan before having to go at Real six months ago after a season without silverware.
But Ancelotti also knows about defeat as he famously lost the 2005 Champions League final with Milan on penalties against Liverpool after leading 3-0 at half-time.
The title collection makes him highly attractive for Munich, the super-rich German number one club who have five Champions Cup/League trophies, a record 25 German titles and 17 German cups.
But there is more to Ancelotti than titles.
Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) on Saturday declared “the affable Italian the counter concept to the Catalan ascetic Pep Guardiola” whose paths crossed in the 2014 Champions League semis which Real won 5-0 on aggregate.
“No player has ever complained about Ancelotti in public. And no employer either. He has not made himself a single enemy in 40 years in football,” the SZ said.
Ancelotti has coached superstars from Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Frank Lampard, and worked under club presidents from Roman Abramovic to Florentina Perez and Silvio Berlusconi.
“He’s like a big bear. He’s a cute guy, such a sensitive person. He spoke with us every day. Not just with me but with all the players.  He had fun with us. He’s an unbelievable person ... a fantastic coach,” Ronaldo told ESPN after Ancelotti’s departure in Madrid.
Real’s Germany midfielder Toni Kroos echoed this in an interview with Die Zeit weekly on December 10.
“He could mix together all the requirements for success: the tactical idea, the human factor which is not so easy at Real. Everyone was sad when he left - including those who didn’t play and would have had a reason to criticise him,” Kroos said.
“There was not a negative remark, that is extraordinary.”
Even Guardiola, who could still bid farewell in Munich with a title treble like his predecessor Jupp Heynckes did in 2013, named Ancelotti “a super coach and a super person.”
Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said Sunday Ancelotti is a “calm, balanced expert, who knows how to deal with stars and favours a multifaceted style of play - we were looking for this, and we have found it. We are looking forward to working with him.”
After leaving Real in 2015, not regetting he stayed for another season after the European “La Decima” in 2014, he underwent back surgery and took a sabbatical in Vancouver, the Canadian home town of businesswoman Mariann Barrena McClay who became his second wife last year.
Ancelotti only recently said he was in no hurry to return.