*This content was translated by AI.
As the 32nd-team stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America unfolds, several national teams are capturing global attention. Among them, Brazil, which has appointed the highest-paid coach, and France, which has poured massive funds into amateur football, are drawing intense focus.
Carlo Ancelotti, the highest-paid coach of the 2026 World Cup who developed Vinícius
Brazil has not won a World Cup since its title at the 2002 Korea-Japan tournament. This is because European teams have dominated the competition throughout that period. Excluding Argentina, which won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, all World Cup trophies during this span went to European nations.
Despite possessing world-class players who dominate European professional football leagues, Brazil has long suffered from a World Cup drought. Ahead of the North American tournament, it made a historic decision: appointing its first-ever foreign national team coach. The legendary Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti (67) was chosen.
Ancelotti, who won the UEFA Champions League five times with Italy’s AC Milan and Spain’s Real Madrid, is reportedly earning an annual salary exceeding 160 billion won from the Brazilian Football Confederation. This is the highest salary among all coaches participating in the World Cup finals in North America.
The reason Ancelotti commands such a high salary stems from the assessment that he is ideally suited to lead Brazil’s national team, which features numerous players competing at top European clubs. Particularly significant was his existing relationship with Vinícius Júnior (26, Real Madrid), who has emerged as Brazil’s star player.
Vinícius joined Real Madrid at age 18 and struggled to adapt to the European stage for two to three years. However, Ancelotti, then Real Madrid’s head coach, never lost faith in Vinícius’s innate talent, enabling the young player to grow into a global star.
Immediately after becoming Brazil’s national team coach, Ancelotti restructured the squad around Vinícius and developed tactics specifically tailored to his strengths. The core strategy involves yielding ball possession strategically to opponents while targeting their vulnerabilities with counterattacks. This approach maximizes Vinícius’s explosive speed in open spaces. It also reflects Ancelotti’s signature strength: flexibly optimizing the advantages of star players through adaptable tactical systems.
If Brazil, built around Vinícius, reaches the summit at the North American World Cup, Ancelotti will secure a historic place in World Cup history. Should Brazil win, he would become the first foreign coach to lead a team to World Cup glory.
Brazil’s Achilles’ heel lies in the aging of defensive midfielder Casemiro (34, Manchester United) and right-back Danilo (35, Flamengo). To win the North American tournament, they must play one additional match compared to the Qatar edition, inevitably increasing physical demands on these veterans.
France allocates 30% of its association budget to grassroots football
While Brazil secured the highest-paid coach, France has cultivated its team through substantial investment in amateur football. The French Football Federation invested approximately 250 billion won this year to advance grassroots development, representing over 30% of its total annual budget.
France’s strength—having won the 2018 World Cup and finishing as runner-up in the previous tournament—stems from a robust foundation of over 2.4 million amateur players. In banlieues (suburban areas) nicknamed "banlieue," young talents of diverse ethnic backgrounds train relentlessly. This football-integrated lifestyle in the suburbs has become the lifeblood of French football, sustained by the federation’s financial support.
France’s heavy investment in amateur football aims at "national unity." In France, football serves as a platform to heal conflicts with immigrants and counter divisive far-right politics. The sight of players from varied backgrounds representing the national team itself symbolizes progress toward national cohesion.
The current president of the French Football Federation is Philippe Diallo (63), son of a Senegalese boxer. Though an alumnus of Sciences Po Paris, France’s elite political institution, he began his career as a footballer at the Nantes youth academy.
This background positioned him as the ideal candidate to lead the federation. He is widely regarded as uniquely qualified to manage tensions between France’s ethnically diverse national team and a potentially fractured society facing the possibility of electing a far-right president.
Persuading outstanding immigrant-origin players to represent France rather than their ancestral nations remains a critical mission for him. Until now, footballers who chose to play for African national teams while residing in France were not top-tier talents.
However, Ayoub Bouadi (19, Lille), who joined Morocco’s squad for the North American World Cup, was captain of France’s U-21 team and considered a future leader of the French national side. When Bouadi chose Morocco, voices within French football calling for greater support for immigrant players grew louder.
Football is not science; World Cup victory requires luck. Yet global powerhouses engage in "probability games" to maximize their championship chances. Brazil’s strategic coach recruitment and France’s massive grassroots investment exemplify this approach. Consequently, if Brazil wins, foreign coach Ancelotti will likely dominate headlines; if France triumphs, President Diallo, a descendant of immigrants, is poised to become the focal point of media attention.
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*This content was translated by AI.
