How Carlo Ancelotti and Liverpool’s football destinies became bound ahead of 2022 Champions League final

Carlo Ancelotti was always supposed to end up living in Liverpool. Once he did, he found that he loved the coastline more than he had expected.

After moving to Merseyside in 2019, the veteran Italian coach was regularly spotted by locals walking his three family dogs along Crosby beach, a two-and-half mile stretch of sand dunes, stone-coloured sea water and promenade which stares out towards Ireland.

‘It’s a beautiful place,’ Ancelotti told the New York Times. ‘It’s close to the sea. There’s a beautiful beach. A long beach. There is really nice cycling, really nice walks. You can walk all the way to Formby on the coastal path. There are the Gormley statues, 100 of them, on the beach. I really like it.’

For almost fifteen years, since the 2005 Champions League final he lost with AC Milan in Istanbul when Liverpool came from 3-0 down at half-time to win on penalties, Ancelotti’s fate had been to end up in Liverpool. That night, in the most infamous ever running of European football’s showpiece event, his and the Reds’ respective destinies became one, bound by the twisted metaphysics of football. Years later, Ancelotti spoke of the sheer power of the influence Liverpool and its people had on him in Turkey.

‘It’s always been a club that excites me,’ he told reporters in 2014. ‘The You’ll Never Walk Alone they sing is incredible. Nobody sings an anthem like Liverpool fans. Sometimes I look for it on the internet and put it on for my friends. It’s something really unique, seriously.

‘I remember when we played them in Istanbul and we were winning 3-0 at the break. There were 45,000 Liverpool fans in the ground singing You’ll Never Walk Alone for 10 minutes. It was incredible and for an Italian it was a shock.’

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