Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has told the media that there are two types of players in football: those who put the team first and those who are drawn more by their ego.
The Italian is well placed to know. Having himself had a career at the highest level for almost twenty years, then as a coach with immense success, Ancelotti’s talent for locker room management did not arise from nowhere. This allows him to understand the state of mind of a locker room.
Ancelotti told Diario AS that he had noticed a change. “As far as the transfer market is concerned, something has changed. The player has more power than before. On the pitch, it’s the same thing.”
He also noted that some players will sacrifice themselves for the team, while others will protect their own reputations first.
“The player who has a little more ego prefers to win individual titles and there are others who want to put their quality at the service of the team.
Football seems to be evolving towards a model closer to that of major American sports, such as the NFL or the NBA. More and more players are exhausting their contract to get a bigger one, instead of using that money as transfer compensation. It looks like Kylian Mbappé is doing this for the second time in two years.
