Zlatan Ibrahimovic Describes Ancelotti as a Manager Before Brazil-Morocco
zlatan ibrahimovic used Fox Sports pregame coverage before Brazil-Morocco to draw a line between managers and coaches, and he put Carlo Ancelotti on the manager side of that split. He also tied that view to a personal history with Ancelotti from Paris Saint-Germain, where he said the Italian explained how he handled players.
Ibrahimovic on Ancelotti
Ibrahimovic said he knew Ancelotti personally and described him as “un essere umano fantastico.” He then spelled out the difference in his own terms: “Io l’ho avuto come manager, come gestore, non come allenatore: la differenza tra un gestore ed un allenatore è che un allenatore dice ai calciatori dove andare, come farlo, dove giocare, mentre un manager come lui gestisce i calciatori.”
He pointed to one example from their time together at Paris Saint-Germain. Ibrahimovic said he asked Ancelotti how he communicated so well with players, and Ancelotti replied that if there were two right-backs, he would tell each one he was the best right-back in the squad and alternate them every week.
Fox Sports and Brazil-Morocco
The remarks came during the pregame for Brazil-Morocco, the first match in Group B, while Ibrahimovic continued in his analyst role for Fox Sports. The setting mattered because the comments were not made in a club interview or a formal Milan setting, but in World Cup coverage with a wider audience watching how one of football’s most outspoken figures framed leadership.
That same leadership theme has followed him back toward Milan. By mid-June, the club still had not completed its sporting structure, and the names Devin Özek, Markus Krösche, and Ramón Planes were mentioned as possible options for the technical and management area. Rúben Amorim was described as the hottest name for the coach position, and the text says his name would have been supported by Ibrahimovic.
Milan’s Open Structure
The Milan thread is what gives the pregame comments extra weight. Ibrahimovic is not only working as a television analyst; he is also the Senior Advisor of RedBird, so his comments about Ancelotti fit into a wider conversation about how clubs choose and use leadership. Ralf Rangnick’s arrival did not happen, leaving Milan still searching for a settled structure while Amorim stayed linked to the bench.
For Milan, the practical takeaway is simple: the club still had decisions to make in mid-June, and Ibrahimovic remained part of the discussion around them. For viewers in the World Cup studio, he used Brazil-Morocco to make his point plainly — Ancelotti, in his view, belongs in the manager category because he manages players first and instructions second.
