Real Madrid are considering a surprise move to appoint former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp as Carlo Ancelotti's future hangs in the balance, a report in Spain has claimed.
Klopp is widely considered to be one of the modern game's best managerial minds after enjoying immense success with Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool over the last two decades. The 2019 Champions League-winning boss stepped down from the Anfield hot seat last summer, before taking up a role as Red Bull's 'Head of Global Soccer' in January.
Ancelotti's trophy cabinet outstrips that of Klopp - who lost the 2022 Champions League final to the Italian's Madrid - but his future in the Spanish capital is under increasing scrutiny, according to SPORT.
The report claims that Madrid will part ways with Ancelotti if he fails to win either the Champions League or La Liga - disregarding the upcoming Copa del Rey final against Barcelona altogether. In the event that Ancelotti is ousted, Madrid are supposedly giving serious thought to appointing Klopp.
Madrid trail Arsenal by three goals ahead of their Champions League quarter-final second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday. Jude Bellingham may be confident of another famous 'remontada', but the odds are not in Ancelotti's favour.
Domestically, Madrid also face an uphill task to overtake Barcelona at La Liga's summit. Ancelotti's capital outfit are four points adrift of their fiercest rivals with seven games remaining.
Xabi Alonso was widely considered to be the club's first-choice replacement option for Ancelotti, but Bayer Leverkusen are bullish in their confidence at keeping the former Madrid midfielder in Germany. "No, he's staying, that's it," Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes declared at the end of March. "He told me that there was nothing. He has a contract with us."
Whether Klopp would consider a return to the day-to-day grind of management is also undecided. When the 57-year-old announced his decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, he revealed: "I will not manage a club or a country at least for a year, that's not possible, I cannot do that and I don't want to. That's all."
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