Davide Ancelotti on psychology, Madrid and Milan

Real Madrid's assistant coach is much more than just 'Carlo's son'.

In the summer of 2022, I interviewed Davide Ancelotti, Real Madrid’s current assistant manager. The discussion formed part of an article on elite clubs’ evolving approach to sports psychology, but - predominantly due to word count restrictions - I wasn’t able to publish a fuller account of our chat.

A year on, with Ancelotti playing a crucial role in helping Madrid to once again defy doubters across Europe, seemed like an opportune moment to post the interview transcript. So, from his early experience of AC Milan’s ‘Mind Room’ (the inspiration for this newsletter) to his time at the Bernabeu, here’s an extended rundown on my conversation with one of the most interesting young coaches in European football.

So, I suppose the first thing to ask is; when did you become interested in psychology?

When I was 15, I used to go to Milan’s training ground and watch how they worked. It was the beginning of Milan's ‘Mind Room’: I'm talking about 2002 or 2003. So for football, it was something new, something that attracted me because I was studying.

I've always been a student of the game. Then I met Bruno Demichelis and I think he's the one who, in football, started to really think about it (the use of psychology). From that point, I became interested in this aspect of football.

What interested you about it in particular? Why do you think it's so important to football?

I think it's important because even today, the world of football is not so open to this aspect (of the game). Of course that can change, with different countries having different ideas about it, but in general, the game doesn’t care a lot about it.

I think it is really important to develop all the aspects of psychology to compete at the maximum level. In football, I think is an aspect that, in the future, will change because you cannot avoid it. It is knowledge that we must have as coaches.

You mentioned that sometimes in football, psychology is not considered to be that important. A number of top European clubs still don't employ psychologists. Why do you think clubs don't take it as seriously as perhaps they should do?

I think it’s about the culture that we have in this sport. We’ve never thought, even back to when I was playing, that a psychologist is not a therapist, that they’re someone that can help you to perform better, to better manage people.

In our career, we (Davide and Carlo Ancelotti) have tried to have a psychologist for the group. I think there are more now at the elite level. We’ve started to start to see mental coaches and psychologists for each player. I think the future is that every player must have his own psychologist and his own staff.

How have you worked with psychologists and psychology teams at the clubs that you've been at?

We’ve not always had a psychologist in our environment, but, as a coaching team, we've always been interested in that aspect (of the game). On one occasion, someone who the players didn't know was a psychologist came just to watch, stay with us, and then prepare a report.

It was more for the staff because I think the coaching staff needs to have knowledge about psychology. We have to know how to approach the players, how we communicate with them - if it's a good moment to talk, if it's not a good moment to talk - and the profile of the human being.

I strongly believe in leadership, I strongly believe in human relationships and a psychologist can be really helpful for us. But I think it's something that must be individual for everyone, not one for all the players. A (club) psychologist would be interesting more for the people working in the building than for the players.

So, at Madrid at the moment, how do you approach things from a psychology point of view? Do you have a psychologist working at the club?

No. Now, it's just me studying. I have models that I study…and then I tried to apply what I studied to my leadership, implementing the theory on the training pitch.

Particularly now, in pre-season, is a moment where communication with the players is really important because you need to be 100% honest with the players.

At this moment, it’s important to talk with them and to make it clear what's going to happen during the season. We have a lot of players here that don’t have a clear future. Maybe they're here to train, but they won't play any minutes during the season. So at this moment, you must talk with them.

Some managers maybe think that in pre-season, if I don't talk to a player, he will understand he’s not important, but my main model is, of course, my father and I have the same character. So I think I have the same kind of leadership model that he has.

You talked a bit about players having their own psychologists and taking responsibility for their psychological development. Are there examples, maybe not at Madrid, but just in general, of players that you think are doing that well?

We had players that suffered anxiety at Everton and they took care of their mental health. I think in England, they are more open to talking (about this subject) than in other countries like Spain and Italy, where there are more taboos.

Here in Madrid, I know that we have some players that have their own mental coaches and are taking care of their own mental health.

What do you think needs to happen for all clubs to treat psychological support with the seriousness the subject deserves?

You have to change a lot of things, because as I said, in this world (of football), we focus on other aspects (of the game) more than psychology.

I think we have to better teach the people working with the players. I'm doing the (UEFA) Pro License in Wales right now and 90% of the course is devoted to psychology. That's great because in other countries, when you go to a course as a manager or you want to become a manager, you talk about football, then you have like half an hour with the psychologist.

What I'm doing there (in Wales), I think is the future. Giving coaches more knowledge about psychology is something that I would change in my country.

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