Despite a cold war in their personal relationship, Brazil’s head coach is positive that Gennaro Gattuso will end the Azzurri’s 12-year tournament drought
Carlo Ancelotti has broken a long-standing silence regarding his former captain, Gennaro Gattuso, ahead of Italy’s decisive World Cup playoff final against Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The current Brazil national team coach offered a surprisingly optimistic forecast for the national team he once served as an assistant.
“I wish him the best of luck and hope to see him at the World Cup. I’m 100% sure he’ll make it or let’s say 95%, and let fate decide the rest,” Ancelotti told Corriere del Ticino.
“What is certain is that Italy will find themselves in a relatively manageable group, where Switzerland is the only particularly strong opponent.”
This public show of confidence arrives at a moment of extreme tension for Gattuso, who was appointed as Italy’s head coach in June 2025 with the singular mission of avoiding a third consecutive World Cup absence.
Following a 2-0 semi final victory over Northern Ireland in Bergamo, the Azzurri now travel to Zenica for a winner-take-all clash at the Stadion Bilino Polje on Tuesday.
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While the professional stakes are clear, the narrative is complicated by the fact that the two men in the technical areas of the world’s most successful football nations haven’t spoken since a high-profile betrayal at Napoli six years ago.
The Napoli fallout
The fracture between the master and his student dates back to December 2019, an incident recently detailed by Ancelotti’s daughter, Katia, in an interview with Corriere della Sera.
While her father is famously too calm and averse to conflict, she revealed that the circumstances of his firing from Napoli left a permanent scar.
When rumours first swirled that Napoli CEO Aurelio De Laurentiis was seeking to replace Ancelotti with Gattuso, the senior coach contacted his former player for clarity.
Gattuso reportedly denied any contact with the club, yet he was officially hired just days after Ancelotti was dismissed following a 4-0 win over Genk.
The situation reached a breaking point when Ancelotti returned to the training ground to clear his locker and pointedly avoided all eye contact with his successor. Katia Ancelotti’s reflections provide a window into the lingering bitterness.
“They never spoke or saw each other again,” she said. “Dad was upset and doesn’t pretend anything happened. Rino never called him again, they’ll probably see each other again at the World Cup, we all hope Italy goes there. A Brazil-Italy final would be great, the last one was in 1994, dad was Sacchi’s assistant. Where was Gattuso?!”