Ancelotti recalls his Bayern Munich days: "The most ruthless sacking of my career"

Carlo Ancelotti, now coach of the Brazilian national team, looks back in his new autobiography on his turbulent spell at Bayern Munich - and admits the way it ended still stings.

In "The Dream: How to Win the Champions League", the Italian recalls the defining night of his downfall: a Champions League group-stage trip to Paris Saint-Germain. He changed the system, Bayern collapsed 3-0, and that hammering turned out to be their last away defeat in the competition for nearly five years. For Ancelotti, though, it was fatal.

Bayern had actually started the 2017/18 season with seven wins, one draw, and only one previous defeat. Yet the morning after Paris, the axe fell. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had described the loss as "a very bitter defeat" and promised "consequences in plain language". Few, however, expected the board to move so quickly. Bayern had not fired a coach so early in years.

"It was the most ruthless dismissal of my entire career," Ancelotti writes, still baffled by the decision - all the more so given he had delivered the Bundesliga title at a canter just months earlier.

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The Italian, who has won the Champions League five times as a coach, also reveals the internal challenges of managing Bayern’s power structure:

"I was accountable to several important figures at once. It was difficult to understand who had more power. After a few weeks, I even pulled Philipp Lahm aside to ask him what he thought."

Ancelotti’s career, of course, hardly ended in Munich. From there, he moved to Napoli and Everton before returning to Real Madrid, where he added two more league titles and two more Champions Leagues to his glittering CV. He remains the only coach to win the domestic championship in all five of Europe's top leagues: Italy, England, France, Germany, and Spain.

Since July 1, 2025, Ancelotti has embarked on a new chapter: head coach of Brazil. It is his first adventure in international management - and, judging by his book, one entered with the scars of Munich still fresh.