To cut the sixty-year milestone, Carlo Ancelotti arrives today accompanied by his most trusted traveling companions: slowness and common sense. It seems a paradox, but in the peasant culture of which he is a son there is a proverb that says "those who go slow go healthy and go far". And Carletto, religiously clinging to the roots, respected the saying: he never accelerated, he let himself be carried away by time without wanting to dominate him and now he is still on stage enjoying the beauty of the moment. In his home in Vancouver, Canada - always in touch with the leaders of Naples and with the president De Laurentiis, because this is the new challenge to be won - it is inevitable to rethink the long journey that has brought him from the Reggiolo campaign to this point. The career as a footballer, that of a coach, the triumphs, the bitterness: everything is remembered, because everything is life and, like his beloved pig, nothing is thrown away of life, not even pain.

THE MASTERS - Three are his cardinal points as a player: Parma, Rome and Milan. With the crusader shirt on he made himself known and convinced a holy man like Nils Liedholm who, in order to take him to Giallorossi, had to start a long discussion with his mother Cecilia, who did not want to know to leave her child for the big city. Liedholm, for Carletto, was not only a soccer master, but also a reference outside the field: the irony and wisdom of the Baron are a sort of second skin for him who plays the role of leader of the group without ever forgetting the calm and the balance. At Milan, in the summer of 1987, he arrived at the request of Arrigo Sacchi and although Berlusconi was skeptical about the knees that creaked. "The important thing is that your head doesn't squeak," Sacchi said, making him the coach of that fantastic Milan. Together they conquered the world and the relationship continued even when Carlo decided it was time to try a new adventure. He was the assistant of Sacchi in the National team, at the 1994 World Cup, and then tried to fly alone. Reggiana (promoted in A in 1996), Parma (second in 1997), Juve where he was not welcomed with red carpets: Avvocato Agnelli liked him, Doctor Umberto a little less, so much so that after two championships and two second places, despite having just renewed the contract, gave him the sack.

IN FAMILY - But the coach Ancelotti, the one who over the years has become a symbol of success in Europe, was born in Milanello where he remained from autumn 2001 to spring 2009. There he found himself in the family, with Galliani who protected his shoulders and Berlusconi that teased him: he studied, learned, confronted and won. Among the many trophies, a championship and two Champions League, before deciding that he was ready for the big jump, to try the adventure abroad, he who came from the countryside and foreign languages ​​didn't chew them easily. Also in this case everyone was astonished: at Chelsea, at PSG, at Real Madrid, at Bayern Monaco, everywhere he brought at least one triumph to the club's bulletin board. Once, to those who asked him what his secret was, he replied: "I try to teach, the rest is done by the players who are the real engine of football." Always one step back, always ready to get in the shade and leave the lights to his boys: it's also why nobody, from Maldini to Gattuso, from Ronaldo to Modric, has ever had anything to say about him and everyone, today , they will send him greetings. He, a declared gourmet, will celebrate in his own way: at the table. It is the only place where, for Carletto, sobriety does not exist.