Ancelotti’s son opens Real Madrid’s black box.. the truth about Vinicius’s Xabi moment and who really runs the dressing room!

He spent years inside Real Madrid and witnessed the finest details of the dressing room and its most sensitive moments. Now he has decided to speak with rare frankness about issues that have occupied Madrid fans for a long time, starting with the controversial Clasico moment and the question of who really runs the team.

He did not stop there. He also revealed what Real Madrid lost with the departure of one of their legends, gave a clear verdict on the club’s current coach, and admitted to a personal dream he has had for years that is directly tied to the Spanish giants.

The man behind these comments is Davide Ancelotti, son of Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti and his former assistant at Real Madrid, who now coaches French side Lille, speaking in a long interview with Spanish newspaper AS.

On Vinicius Junior’s moment with coach Xabi Alonso in the Clasico, Davide said: “First, I felt sorry for Xabi because I have a good relationship with him. It is not correct. Vini is the first to know he was wrong, because that is not done out of the respect you must have for the coach, the club, your teammates and the fans. But it is in the past. I don’t think Madrid failed to win important titles because of that moment.”

Asked about the impression that the players have more power than the coach in the dressing room, he answered firmly: “If that were the case, there would be no need for a coach. It does not match reality. Real Madrid’s players are hyper-professional. We never had a bad response from anyone. They don’t want to come off the pitch? Fine, that’s normal. What Vini did, Kroos did a thousand times. Modric did it in his own language. Casemiro does it… But that doesn’t mean the players are in charge. In the Real Madrid dressing room, the coach is in charge.”

On Vinicius as a player, Davide recalled that he scored in two Champions League finals with them and said he can only be grateful. He explained that all his teammates love him because he is generous, never misses a training session, doesn’t hide, doesn’t deceive and never saves his effort, always being there for the team. He added that when Vini is in good form he is extremely decisive, but he needs a structure behind him that allows the team to play with him, because he is a very direct player who always attacks, otherwise the game becomes uncontrolled.

On having Vinicius and Mbappe together, he laughed and said a team must take advantage of being very vertical and be ready for what that costs, stressing that he was not talking about the current Madrid side and that the key is always that the team does not break apart.

On Toni Kroos leaving, he said: “Madrid lost the best player in the world in his position. You can’t say ‘I need another Kroos’, because there isn’t one. He was the owner of the game, he controlled the rhythm, and he ran 11 kilometres a match.” He added that Rodri would fit anywhere, but that Madrid should not go looking for a copy of Kroos, insisting the club will find its balance and stay competitive until the end, as always.

On Jose Mourinho, Davide said he is the ideal coach for Real Madrid at this moment because he is in love with the club and hugely motivated. “Sometimes I see myself reflected in him. Like him, I didn’t have a great career as a professional footballer, and I also studied Physical Education,” he said, describing him as a winner who changed football in his own way.

On his own future, Davide admitted that coaching Real Madrid is everyone’s dream, and his too, but explained that every coach who arrives at Madrid has a status he does not yet have and must build by winning matches. He said he is not thinking about it now because he has a spectacular project at Lille. He also said he hopes the club’s door stays open for his father in the future, noting that his relationship with Real Madrid is very special.

Davide also spoke about Barcelona, admitting he enjoys watching them because they play very vertical football. He said he suffered against them because they were very difficult to control, and that he likes seeing Raphinha as a number nine.