Former head coach of the French national team and ex-French footballer Laurent Blanc has been appointed the new Paris St Germain (PSG) coach as the French side’s league title-winning coach Carlo Ancelotti has been confirmed as the new Real Madrid boss.
Ancelotti, who led AC Milan to Champions League victories in 2003 and 2007, has managed Parma, Juventus and Chelsea before moving to the French capital on 30 December, 2011 for a fee said to worth €6m-per-years. He’s won Club World Cup (2007), two UEFA Super Cups (2003, 2007), a solitary Scudetto (2004) and one Copa de Italia (2003)
He became Chelsea’s fourth permanent manager in 21 months, following Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and Luiz Felipe Scolari. He is the second non-British manager to do the Premier League and FA Cup double in his first (2009/10) season at Chelsea, after Arsene Wenger.
Ancelotti, 54, made it clear to PSG his intentions to replace Mourinho, who left Madrid for Chelsea, at the Bernabeu. The French champions’ 2012/13 league title winning campaign was their first in 14 years.
They were reluctant to lose the former prolific Italian midfielder, yet were subsequently linked with a host of coaches, including Anzhi’s Guus Hiddink, Russia’s Fabio Capello and Tottenham’s Andre Villas-Boas.
The Italian has penned a three-year contract with Real and will be unveiled at a press conference on Wednesday.
A statement released by the Spanish giants read: “Carlo Michelangelo Ancelotti will coach Real Madrid next season. The Italian has experienced success in every country where he has managed and arrives in Spanish capital after being named coach of the season in France.”
Former Bordeaux and French national team coach Blanc was confirmed on Tuesday on a two-year deal.
“PSG are happy to announce the arrival of Laurent Blanc as coach for two years. He’ll take charge of the team with his staff from the start of pre-season training on 1 July,” a PSG statement read.
“The mission assigned by the PSG board to Laurent Blanc is to continue down the path started last year, and to steer the team towards the European summits.”
There has been no confirmation as to the make-up of Blanc’s backroom staff, though his assistant at both Bordeaux and the French national team, Jean-Louis Gasset, 59, is widely expected to be named his No. 2.
Blanc led Bordeaux to the 2008/09 Ligue 1 title and in the same year won the French League Cup. The former Montpellier, Barcelona and Manchester United defender was among the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship winning squad, before assuming the coaching role of the French national team in 2009.
Before every match at the 1998 World Cup hosted on home soil, Blanc had a ritual of kissing the bald head of United teammate Fabien Barthez. He made 90 appearances for France.
