Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.Hello! Carlo Ancelotti has entered his final chapter at Real Madrid. Trent Alexander-Arnold is poised to start afresh there — but not without saying a glorious goodbye to Liverpool first…On the way:🚪 Ancelotti set for Bernabeu exit🙌 Touching TAA parting shot😔 Leicester’s annus horribilis🖼️ World Cup poster rushReal Rollercoaster: Madrid hit late winner but Ancelotti exit likely despite La Liga title chaseSpain is one of the few countries in Europe where a league title won’t automatically save a coach’s job. Carlo Ancelotti is fighting for another — but come June, the Italian is destined to take his leave of Real Madrid regardless.That was the big story of the weekend: Ancelotti’s impending exit from his second stint at the Bernabeu. It’s been highly successful — better than his first, yielding two La Liga championships and two Champions Leagues — but he and they are running out of steam, and the natives are restless.Last night’s 1-0 win over Athletic Club projected the air of malaise. Madrid got there by a whisker, but only via a brilliant, plucked-from-the-air volley from Federico Valverde (above) with 92 laboured minutes gone. Kylian Mbappe (banned after that appalling tackle a week ago) was booed by the Bernabeu’s crowd when a big screen showed him sitting in the stands. It’s all being held together by bits of string.Which is ironic because Madrid remain within four points of La Liga leaders Barcelona with six matches left. It might be too big a gap, but bridging it isn’t totally out of the question. A title just wouldn’t turn Madrid into a happy camp. And it’s unlikely to buy Ancelotti another season at the coalface either.What are the implications?The expectation is that Ancelotti will leave Spain this summer and accept an offer to manage Brazil’s national team. Brazil have been courting him for a while, and a representative of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) is believed to have attended Madrid’s limp Champions League exit at the hands of Arsenal, with a view to holding talks with him.Understandably, Ancelotti is their dream recruit. And his appointment would have other implications:
Is the door opening for Xabi Alonso to move to the Bernabeu? The Bayer Leverkusen boss steadfastly refuses to discuss the possibility publicly, but Madrid’s admiration of him isn’t guarded in the slightest. Watch this space.
While qualifying is not yet complete, if Ancelotti takes Brazil to the 2026 World Cup, the tournament is likely to be flooded with managers who could find high-level work in Europe’s club game no problem: Thomas Tuchel (England), Mauricio Pochettino (USMNT), Julian Nagelsmann (Germany), Marcelo Bielsa (Uruguay) and Ancelotti himself. It’s a cultural shift from Euro 2024, where the federation coach was in vogue.
In hindsight, there’s been too much noise around Ancelotti. A coach’s position at Madrid doesn’t come in for so much scrutiny unless the club’s hierarchy are having doubts about him. It hardly helps that Barca are flying on all fronts and working to tie Hansi Flick to an extended contract. Madrid ruled the roost this time last year, but Flick has knocked Ancelotti off his perch. That’s how quickly life changes in La Liga’s ferocious melting pot.News round-upBaring all: Alexander-Arnold in emotional celebration as Madrid move nearsWhoever’s running Real Madrid next season should have the pleasure of Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back. Or so we think. As with Ancelotti’s situation, a certain amount of reading between the lines is required because Alexander-Arnold has given very little away.Talk of his anticipated free transfer to Spain went down badly with Liverpool’s rank and file, which made yesterday’s events interesting. The 26-year-old notched the only goal (above) in a 1-0 win over Leicester City (more on them shortly). His celebration — shirt off, soul bared to the away end (top GIF) — was for somebody’s benefit, and possibly his own: a pointed demonstration of what his career with Liverpool and a Premier League title in the offing meant to him.Hot takes were everywhere. Might the passionate outburst suggest a change of heart about taking a new contract at Anfield? Sadly for Liverpool, all indications continue to point to Alexander-Arnold leaving for Madrid. But he returned from injury ahead of schedule at Leicester, scored five minutes after stepping off the bench and gave his situation some welcome nuance: that it’s possible to do right by Liverpool while also looking out for himself.Leicester low point: Van Nistelrooy’s side relegated — so where did it all go wrong?So, farewell Leicester — relegated from the Premier League for the second time in two years. At least in the Championship there’s some prospect of them bagging a goal at home again.In reality, the game was up long before their defeat to Liverpool, and Rob Tanner’s deep dive on their demise traces it back to Enzo Maresca bailing out to Chelsea in July. His replacement, Steve Cooper, was nothing like Maresca stylistically. Ruud van Nistelrooy brought about another noisy gear change. Throw in some inept player recruitment and it’s a textbook capitulation.Would it have made a difference had Leicester landed Graham Potter, their top choice to replace Maresca? To judge by Potter’s struggles at West Ham United, no. West Ham are 17th after a 1-1 draw with Southampton on Saturday (which, incidentally, spared Southampton the ignominy of the Premier League’s worst-ever points tally). Afterwards, striker Niclas Fullkrug went rogue, describing West Ham as “s***”. Zero marks for diplomacy, full marks for honesty. And trouble afoot.Around The Athletic FC
FIFA has been unleashing official posters for the 2026 World Cup host cities. Pablo Maurer set aside some time to review the designs. The Mexican efforts are excellent. San Francisco looks like it was designed in 10 minutes. Los Angeles has a Grand Theft Auto feel, and not in a good way. Check them all out.
Nabil Bentaleb almost died after suffering a cardiac arrest in the kickabout with some friends. He had a defibrillator fitted and made an astonishing return with Lille in France — scoring inside four minutes of his comeback. Tom Williams’ feature about him is a remarkable read.
We’ve compiled a list of the favourite music acts of each Premier League boss (pun intended), from Bruce Springsteen to Taylor Swift. It’s important you know about these things. Honestly.
Two months into the 2025 schedule, MLS is down to a single unbeaten record: that of Inter Miami. Their 1-0 win over Columbus Crew on Saturday ended the only other unblemished streak. The crowd topped 60,000, as the Lionel Messi roadshow rolled on.
Quiz answer: the six players who appeared in the knockout stages of the Champions League in 2010-11 and 2024-25 were Angel Di Maria, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Luka Modric, Manuel Neuer, Wojciech Szczesny and Thomas Muller.
Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: Legia Warsaw’s semi-naked fans. I won’t subject you to photos of the hot tub I was talking about…
Catch a match(Selected games, times ET/UK)Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs Nottingham Forest, 3pm/8pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports.Championship: Leeds United vs Stoke City, 10am/3pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports; Burnley vs Sheffield United, 12.30pm/5.30pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports, ITV.La Liga: Girona vs Real Betis, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.And finally…Sheffield Wednesday, one of the world’s oldest teams, are just about safe from the drop in the Championship. That’s as much as anybody can say about their season. They’re a meandering entity, they’ve got ownership strife, manager Danny Rohl is probably about to jump ship — and the big picture was deftly summed up by this comedy concession to Stoke City on Good Friday. The funniest aspect of it? Goalkeeper Pierce Charles pretending it wasn’t his fault.(Photo: Gokhan Taner/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
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