Investing heavily in Brazil's top-paid coach and France's grassroots football [★World Cup Biz Lee Jong-seong ④]

*This content was translated by AI.

As the 2026 FIFA North American World Cup Round of 32 unfolds, several national teams are capturing attention. Among them, Brazil, which has hired the highest-paid coach, and France, which has invested heavily in amateur football, are drawing intense focus.

Carlo Ancelotti, the highest-paid coach of the North American World Cup, who nurtured Vinicius

Brazil has not won the World Cup since its title at the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup. This is because European teams have dominated the tournament in the interim. Excluding Argentina, which won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, all World Cup trophies in that period went to European nations.

Brazil, a football nation that boasts world-class players dominating European professional leagues yet suffers from a World Cup title drought, has made a major decision ahead of the North American World Cup. For the first time in its history, Brazil has appointed a foreign head coach: 67-year-old Italian legend Carlo Ancelotti.

Ancelotti, who has won the UEFA Champions League five times with Italian club AC Milan and Spanish club Real Madrid, is reported to receive an annual salary exceeding 160 billion won from the Brazilian Football Confederation. This is the highest salary among all coaches participating in the North American World Cup finals.

The reason Ancelotti receives such a high salary is fundamentally because he is deemed the right person to lead the Brazilian national team, which is filled with players competing in European clubs. Especially important was the connection between Ancelotti and Vinicius Junior (26, Real Madrid), who has established himself as Brazil's ace.

Vinicius, who donned the Real Madrid jersey at age 18, struggled to adapt to the European stage for two to three years. However, Ancelotti, who was Real Madrid's head coach at the time, never lost faith in Vinicius, a natural talent, allowing Vinicius to grow into a star player.

Immediately after becoming Brazil's head coach, Ancelotti restructured the team around Vinicius and devised tactics tailored specifically to him. The reason counter-attacking football, which yields possession to opponents at times while targeting their vulnerabilities, became Brazil's core tactic is to exploit Vinicius's speed, which shines when there is space to run. This may also be Ancelotti's specialty, having always flexibly managed tactics to maximize the strengths of star players.

If Brazil, led by Vinicius, reaches the summit at the North American World Cup, Coach Ancelotti will secure an important place in World Cup history. Should Brazil win, Ancelotti will become the first foreign coach in World Cup history to lead a team to victory.

Brazil's Achilles' heel is the aging of defensive midfielder Casemiro (34, Manchester United) and right-back Danilo (35, Flamengo). Considering that winning the North American World Cup requires playing one more match than in the previous Qatar tournament, the physical burden on these two players will inevitably increase.

France allocates 30% of its association budget to grassroots football

While Brazil has hired the highest-paid coach, France has grown its team through investment in amateur football. The French Football Federation invested approximately 250 billion won this year to develop grassroots football, which exceeds 30% of the association's total budget.

France's strength, which won the 2018 World Cup and finished as runner-up in the previous tournament, stems from a robust bottom structure of over 2.4 million amateur football players. In the French suburbs known as "banlieues," young football talents of diverse ethnicities sweat on the pitch. The scene of football becoming part of daily life in the banlieues has become the lifeblood of French football under the financial support of the French Football Federation.

The reason France invests heavily in amateur football is "national integration." In France, football serves as a stage to heal conflicts with immigrants and the divisive politics of the far-right. The very sight of players from diverse backgrounds playing together for the French national team signifies that it contributes to national integration.

The current president of the French Football Federation is Philippe Diallo (63), the son of a Senegalese boxer. Although he is an alumnus of Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies), the cradle of French elites, he is a football figure who played as a player at the Nantes youth academy.

This background led him to become the football federation president. He is regarded as the right person to manage the conflict structure between France's multi-ethnic national team and a divided France that may elect a far-right president.

Persuading outstanding players of immigrant backgrounds to play for the French national team is also expected to be his important mission. Until now, football players who chose to represent African national teams while residing in France were players in France's second division.

However, Ayoub Bouadi (19, Lille), who joined the Morocco national team for the North American World Cup, was the captain of the French U-21 national team. When Bouadi, who was hailed as a player who would lead the future French national team, chose Morocco, voices calling for more support for immigrant players grew louder in the French football community.

Football is not a science. Winning the World Cup requires luck. However, world football powers engage in a "probability game" to increase their chances of winning the World Cup. The same applies to Brazil, which has focused heavily on hiring a coach, and France, which has invested heavily in grassroots football. Therefore, if Brazil wins, foreign coach Ancelotti is likely to become the focus of news; if France wins, President Diallo, a descendant of an immigrant generation, is likely to become the focus.

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*This content was translated by AI.