RIO DE JANEIRO: Carlo Ancelotti on Monday ruled injury-plagued Neymar out from Brazil’s line-up for upcoming World Cup qualifiers and vowed to lead the team to a sixth title on his first day as Selecao coach.

Former Real Madrid manager Ancelotti is the first non-Brazilian in six decades to coach the record five-time World Cup winners.

“I’m very proud to lead the best team in the world. I have a big job ahead of me and have great hope that Brazil will become champions again,” he said during his official presentation at a hotel in Rio de Janeiro.

“The only goal is to win the 2026 World Cup,” he said after receiving a green-and-yellow coach’s jacket from Luiz Felipe Scolari, the manager who took Brazil to its last World Cup win in 2002.

At 65, the Italian star manager, who has five Champions League tit­les under his belt, is taking the reins of a national team for the first time.

Expectations are high in football-mad Brazil that he can revive the squad’s fortunes.

To that end, he announced the return of Manchester United midfielder and former Brazil captain Casemiro for June’s qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay, alongside Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr and Barcelona winger Raphinha.

FORMIDABLE TASK

Ancelotti is Brazil’s fourth coach in two years, and he faces a formidable task.

“Brazil was sort of decaying and needed that little light at the end of the tunnel. I think he is that light,” said Jose Geraldo Da Silva, a 65-year-old retiree, who was waiting outside the Rio hotel to try catch a glimpse of the new trainer.

Brazil has struggled for form in 2026 World Cup qualifying and sacked Dorival Junior in March after a humiliating 4-1 thrashing by regional arch-rivals Argentina.

Ancelotti will cut his teeth on June 5 against Ecuador in Guayaquil and then on the 10th will host Paraguay in Sao Paulo.

While ruling out Neymar for the fixtures, Ancelotti said that “obviously we’re counting on him” for the future.

In his last game for Brazil in October 2023, which ended in a 2-0 defeat to Uruguay, Neymar suffered a serious knee injury and has not worn his country’s colors since then.

Casemiro, 33, who has also not been called up since October 2023, did receive the nod to return, by contrast.

Speaking in Spanish peppered with a few words of Portuguese, which he promised to quickly learn, Ancelotti said Casemiro would bring “charisma, personality and talent.”

New wunderkind Estevao, 18, who is set to join Che­lsea from Sao Paulo’s Palmeiras, was also called up.

But injured Real Madrid forwards Rodrygo and Endrick did not make the list.

Brazil is currently languishing in fourth place in the South American qualifying table for next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The national football federation (CBF) spent two years wooing Ancelotti to try turn the page on years of disappointment for the national side and its fans.

The Selecao have only made it as far as the World Cup semi-final once out of the last five tournaments — in 2014 against Germany, who gave the World Cup hosts an historic 7-1 thrashing on home soil.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2025