Real Madrid has won LaLiga for the 35th time, following a 4-0 win over Espanyol at the Bernabeu on Saturday.Â
Los Blancos went into the weekend with a 15-point lead and only needed one point to make the gap between them and the rest of the field mathematically unbridgeable.
As a result of the victory, coach Carlo Ancelotti became the first manager in history to win titles in each of Europe’s top five leagues.
The 62-year-old Italian had already made history earlier this month when he reached the Champions League semifinals for the fourth time in his managerial career.
An interesting aspect of Ancelotti’s accomplishment is that as a coach, he has only won one of the five major European league championships, so he cannot claim to have the most overall title wins among his peers (more on that later).
Here’s how Ancelotti won his historic first title after a nearly two-decade winning streak.
1. Serie A (Italy)
The first league title of Ancelotti’s managerial career came with AC Milanin 2003-04 when he successfully guided the Rossoneri to glory for their first Scudetto since 1998-99. Ancelotti’s side — who had won the first of two Champions League crowns under his management the previous season — managed to win the league by an impressive margin of 11 points over second-place Roma, who scored three more goals and conceded five fewer than Milan.
2. Premier League (England)
Ancelotti was appointed as manager of Chelsea in July 2009, the very day after ending his long association with Milan having overseen an underwhelming third-place finish in Serie A. He delivered the Premier League title in his maiden campaign, though the race went right down to the final day. In the end, the Blues pipped rivals Manchester United by a single point with an 8-0 drubbing of Wigan Athletic that also saw them set a new league record for goals scored in a single season (103). Ancelotti led the club to their first-ever double six days later by beating Portsmouth in the FA Cup final, but his tenure only lasted until the end of the following season.
3. Ligue 1 (France)
Ancelotti spent less than 18 months in charge at Paris Saint-Germainfrom December 2011 to May 2013 and yet still found time to claim the Ligue 1 title in his first and only full season at the helm. He took over from the deposed Antoine Kombouare and finished runner-up behind Montpellier in his first few months at the Parc des Princes before going one better in 2012-13 and tying up the first championship under the club’s Qatari ownership with two matches to spare.
4. Bundesliga (Germany)
After a two-year spell in charge at Real Madrid in which he won his third Champions League title, and Real’s long-awaited 10th, Ancelotti was appointed as Bayern Munich coach for the 2016-17 season. He replaced Pep Guardiola, who departed having won three titles in as many seasons in Germany. Ancelotti maintained the standard and brought the Meisterschale back to the Allianz Arena for a fifth consecutive year, with his side at the top of the table for all but three game weeks of the season. However, he only made it in the job until September of the following season, when he was fired in the wake of a 3-0 loss to former club PSG in the Champions League.
5. LaLiga (Spain)
Ancelotti claimed “La Decima” during his first spell at the Bernabeu from 2013 to 2015 but lost out to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in his two league title races. However, he was handed a chance at redemption when he was poached from Everton and reappointed by Los Blancos in June 2021 to replace Zinedine Zidane and, just 10 months later, he earned it. 4-0 against Espanyol made certain of Real’s first LaLiga crown since 2019-20 and only their third in the past decade.
