In Knowing Carlo - an Official Everton Podcast series - we seek to discover what has driven our serial-winner manager during a trophy-laden football career spanning six decades.

Sven Goran Eriksson was Ancelotti's manager at AS Roma in the mid-1980s - and the man who made him captain. 

Get insight into Carlo Ancelotti the player, the manager and the person from all these people by downloading Knowing Carlo now. 

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Sven-Goran Eriksson says “top-class” Carlo Ancelotti has the expertise and personality to elevate Everton to the pinnacle of English football.

Former England boss Eriksson viewed Ancelotti as a manger-in-waiting when the pair were together at Serie A club Roma for three years in the mid-1980s.

Eriksson chose “tough and clever” midfielder Ancelotti as captain after one year in charge in the Italian capital.

The Swede spoke to The Official Everton Podcast for a series of programmes on Ancelotti.

And he insisted Everton picked from the summit of the world game when appointing their new boss in December 2019.

“He is a top-class man and top-class manager: top, top,” said Eriksson.

“If I was the owner of a club, I would hire Ancelotti because he would give stability.

“He will be very loyal to the club and to the players.

“He will be a good PR man because of his way.

“And the connections he has around the world in football are great.

“You don’t find anyone speaking badly about Ancelotti, I never heard that.

“If a club has a big name as manager and people know he’s a good manager, players want to go there.

“Players think, ‘I will be better under this manager’.

“I went to see some training when he was manager at Chelsea [between 2009-2011] and that was the same Ancelotti I knew.

“Good exercises and good explanations.

“If you treat people with respect, people respect you.

“And Ancelotti is one of those who people respect.”

Ancelotti had been with Roma five years and won one Serie A title when Eriksson became manager in 1984.

The new boss quickly identified Ancelotti as a primary dressing room influence and after one season chose the Italian as his new captain.

“Carlo was a fighter, he never gave up, a wonderful team player and privately perfect in everything he did,” said Eriksson.

“He was always there, always training and playing 90 minutes.

“It was very easy [the decision to name him captain].

“Carlo was living for his football, it was everything.

“He was not quiet, nor especially lively, just normal and down to earth, always with a smile and helping people.

“Super professional in everything he did.

“He was a box-to-box central midfielder.

“He was not fast but he was tough.

“And very, very clever as a football player, he seldom gave away the ball.

“You knew he would always give everything.

“He could be fantastic or good. He was never bad, never.”

Eriksson left Roma in 1987 with a warning to sceptical club president Dino Viola to reverse a decision to sell Ancelotti.

Viola, however, couldn’t be dissuaded from his opinion that the 28-year-old Ancelotti’s powers were on the wane after serious injuries to both knees – a right knee problem in 1981 followed two years later by the issue with his left knee.

Ancelotti joined AC Milan and in five years at the San Siro won two Serie A titles and two European Cups.

Eriksson observed all this through knowing eyes and expects Ancelotti’s extraordinary managerial career to similarly endure.

“Carlo can go on as long as wants, as long as he’s healthy and wants to live together with the players and the press and the fans,” said Eriksson.

“It is a special life… a beautiful life.

“He has been manager of very important teams and won titles in a lot of countries.

“He was one of those players who learned from the coaches he had.

“I guess he learned a lot from Arrigo Sacchi [who managed Ancelotti for four years at Milan and appointed him assistant Italy boss for the 1994 World Cup].

“You could see he would stay in football and probably be a manager.

“Sometimes you have players and know this one will be a manager or coach.

“Ancelotti was one, for sure.

“If he says [he is able to meet the self-set challenge of creating an Everton team to compete at the top of the Premier League], then yes, I think he is.”