After 17 years of playing football and 19 years of being a coach, it seems that nothing surprises Fabio Capello anymore. But this veteran strategist is still surprised by the brilliance of Jude Bellingham, who he believes will create a new era with Kylian Mbappe, not Erling Haaland…

– Marca reporter: You have done many things and have a special connection with Real Madrid fans, even though you were only here for 2 seasons?

– Coach Fabio Capello: Yes, when I first came to Real Madrid in 1996, I signed a 3-year contract. But then Silvio Berlusconi (late president of AC Milan – Reporter) called, and I asked president Lorenzo Sanz for permission to let me leave. My career started with Berlusconi and when he needed me, I had to help. Because I owe him.

When I returned to the Bernabeu 10 years later, president Ramon Calderon was the one who decided we would part ways before La Liga ended. I remember that there were 9 or 10 rounds left in the season and Real Madrid was 9 points behind Barca, but in the end we still won the championship. Only thing is, he invited another coach and I returned to Italy.

– Can you tell us more about that comeback in La Liga?

– It was an amazing, almost unbelievable comeback. I told the players to treat each remaining match as a Champions League final. And they did it.

– Did you have to rebuild the team when you first came to Real Madrid in 1996?

– Sorry to interrupt, but I did it twice. After many years of nothing, I came to rebuild the team and restore Real Madrid’s winning spirit.

– Now it’s strange to say that Real Madrid doesn’t have a winning spirit. But it happened in your first season, the 1996/97 season, when the team didn’t even qualify for the European Cup?

– I also feel strange. But because I come from a team like AC Milan, where winning is normal, I realized that I had to restore that spirit. That’s something I’m still proud of, when I see the players feel proud when wearing the white shirt.

I revived Real Madrid twice, but the first time was the most important when the team forgot its winning spirit. Now if Real Madrid invites you, you know you’re about to lead the best team, with the best players.

Coach Fabio Capello is proud to have revived Real Madrid’s winning spirit.

– That’s why Real Madrid fans love Fabio Capello so much, even though he didn’t win the Champions League?

– Yes, even though the Champions League is the most important thing in Madrid, people still appreciate what I can do.

– A few weeks ago, Carlo Ancelotti was renewed and president Florentino Perez said that he is the ideal coach of Real Madrid. You know him well, he was your student at Milan, so how do you evaluate coach Ancelotti?

– He is number 1 in the world.

– Very clear, right?

– Of course. Carlo has won in all the places he has worked. He went to Germany and won, went to England and did the same thing. In Italy, it was not just a victory but a miracle.

– What is Ancelotti’s secret?

– That’s intelligence. He doesn’t have a set plan, but transforms based on the players he has. You can’t play with the same style forever, you have to put the players in the right place and create conditions for them to show 100% of their abilities.

– Does that sound easy?

– Many coaches still say: “We have to play this way.” But that’s not true. Let’s review the most recent El Clasico match in the Spanish Super Cup. Barca knows that Real Madrid has a quality squad and fast strikers, but still pulls the defense up to half the field. Seeing that, Carlo must have thought: “Oh, thank you.”

– Is that what Xavi keeps saying?

– There are coaches who always insist: “This is my system, this is my style.” But you have to research and prepare for each match, understand your opponents, their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses to come up with a suitable playing style.

– So what do you think when people say that Ancelotti is really only good at managing the dressing room?

– (Laughs loudly) Sorry, I can’t help but laugh. Whoever says that doesn’t understand anything about football. Because the most difficult thing is managing the dressing room. The more stars a team has, the more difficult it is to control. How many stars does Carlo have in his hand?

Coach Fabio Capello rates his former student Carlo Ancelotti as the current number 1 coach in the world.

– Are you surprised that Xavi was criticized just a few months after helping Barca win La Liga?

– No, that’s football. Barca’s biggest problem is that Lewandowski has declined and is no longer playing at his usual level.

– What do you think, in the context of clubs becoming less and less patient, there is still a coach who has existed for 12 years at Atletico like Simeone?

– I don’t know, it’s amazing. In England there are also such cases (Wenger, Ferguson…), but they don’t really coach. Sometimes they only come to watch training sessions twice a week. And Ferguson always changes his assistant team every 4 years to refresh himself.

That’s why I see what Simeone did as a miracle. Because he still runs the daily practice sessions himself. In addition, maintaining motivation for the team is also very difficult. I think El Cholo does it through the leaders in the dressing room.

– So in your time, who was the leader in Real Madrid’s dressing room?

– Hierro, Redondo and Raul too. Raul is the leader on the field because every time the team is “dreamy”, he will start running, pressing and “waking up” his teammates.

– Could what happened between Simeone and Atletico happen at Real Madrid or Barca?

– Are not. For me, Simeone has done something unimaginable.

– Were you surprised by Bellingham’s performances? What caught your attention more: the fact that he scored so many goals, or his quick adaptation to Real Madrid?

– Second thing, definitely. English players often have problems when going abroad, but maybe having played in Germany has helped him adapt more easily. Bellingham is an all-round player who can do everything at a very high level and knows how to make a difference. He does things you can’t imagine, and has very special passes and moves.

– It is said that as soon as he saw Bellingham play in pre-season, Ancelotti decided to push him highest in midfield to take advantage of his scoring ability?

– That’s what we just said: you have to put players in positions where they can show 100% of their abilities. And it happened to Bellingham.

– At the age of 20, Bellingham was like a leader. Is leadership qualities innate or can they be learned?

– Whoever is the leader will always be the leader. You can study at the best university in the world, but leadership qualities are something you either have or don’t, but cannot be learned.

Real Madrid’s rookie Jude Bellingham is highly appreciated by coach Fabio Capello.

– Can someone be a silent leader?

– Yes. I’ll tell you someone: Dino Zoff. He rarely spoke, but when he spoke, everyone would shut up and listen.

– What do you think about Real Madrid’s transformation with the squad that has won everything, and the transition process between veterans and young players to continue winning titles?

– Real Madrid has brought in many talented young players. In modern football, people often look at the statistics before signing a player. But it’s important that you get in touch, to know what he’s like.

The numbers are important, but the basic thing is that you have to know how the player performs at decisive moments, what his problems are and where his strengths lie. Another important thing is whether he is qualified to play for Real Madrid or not.

– You mean the ability to cope with pressure?

– No, no, I always emphasize qualifications. First they have to be good players, and when they arrive we will know if they can handle the pressure or not. For example, in my first season (1996/97), Real Madrid signed a contract with Carlos Secretario, who played for Portugal but could not prove himself at the Bernabeu.

– In your opinion, which team is the candidate to win the Champions League this season?

– Real Madrid and Man City. City have the return of De Bruyne, a player who can make a difference.

– Is it De Bruyne who makes the difference at City, not Haaland?

– Haaland makes a difference because he scores, but De Bruyne is a player who, in difficult times, can create a breakthrough situation even without scoring.

– But Mbappe and Haaland are still considered players who continue the Ronaldo and Messi era?

– No, just Mbappe and Bellingham.

Coach Fabio Capello believes that Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe will continue the Ronaldo – Messi era, not Erling Haaland.

– You mean Bellingham is on the same level? Or will the upcoming battle be between this trio of superstars?

– Right. In my opinion, two players who can compete with each other like Messi and Ronaldo are Mbappe and Bellingham.

– And no Haaland?

– Both of them are more technical than Haaland. Haaland is a formidable striker, a monster, he is also quite skillful and has an instinct for goals. But Mbappe and Bellingham have it all: goals, personal technique, dribbling ability… Haaland is a pure “number 9″.

– If you were the current coach of Real Madrid and had the opportunity to sign Mbappe or Haaland, who would you choose?

– When I was leading Milan, we met Bordeaux, the team had a very talented young player and his name was Zidane. But at that time, I had a good player in that position in Donadoni, and I didn’t feel like I needed more options. We only signed the player we needed, which was a centre-forward.

– I think I understand what you mean

– Mbappe is not a center forward, he prefers to play on the wing. And on that wing, Real Madrid has Vinicius. Of course, Mbappe is Mbappe and technically he is better than Haaland. But Real Madrid need to ask themselves who they need more.

– Even though there is VAR, controversies about referees still continue to appear in Spain, right?

– That’s because you don’t know what’s going on in Italy…

– What do you think about referees in general and VAR in particular?

– To answer this question, it will take us another 2 hours. First, many referees have never played football, so they do not clearly understand body movements in each specific situation. That’s why I think there should be one more former player in the VAR team. But referees are often in their own world, against everyone. They demand respect, and don’t want to know anything else.

– Speaking of referees, what do you think about Barca paying millions of euros to the deputy referee committee for 17 years? Does it coincide with your second term at Real Madrid?

– But we still won the championship…

– Yes, but what do you think about this?

– It’s a scandal and obviously, it’s not good for football. I don’t understand why they do that. It’s bad enough for the Barca president to give money to a deputy referee committee, but for the referee to receive money is even worse.

– That means no matter what the court decides, it is still condemnable?

– Of course. I remember one time when I went to watch a player’s match, his agent came and offered to pay me to sign a contract with him. I replied: “No, this has nothing to do with money. If he’s good, I’ll sign and you don’t have to give me anything. If not, don’t pay me because I won’t sign with him.”

– Can Cristiano Ronaldo continue to score more than 50 goals at the age of 39?

– It also depends on where he plays football.

– But in Saudi Arabia there are many other stars, and they don’t even score half of those goals?

– Ronaldo is a machine. His energy is goals. And he’s still doing it well.

According to Capello, people like Jose Mourinho or Paolo Maldini deserve more respect.

– It has been 15 years since you worked in Spain and football has changed a lot. But for better or for worse?

– Football has become faster, with many new things. I am a witness to something that has changed: England’s disallowed goal against Germany in the 2010 World Cup. Goal-line technology has been adopted as a result.

There’s also VAR, but it’s all still quite messy as people haven’t found the right system yet. Regarding tactics, goalkeepers also touch and pass the ball more, and are no longer players who only know how to use their hands.

– But even though football becomes faster and stronger, is the level of the players still different?

– Yes, that won’t change. Everyone wants to deploy the ball from below, starting with the goalkeeper, but not every team can do it because they don’t have the right players. But if you don’t play that way, you will be called a backward person with boring gameplay.

But is it really interesting that the goalkeeper touches the ball 15 times and the striker only 5 times? When they don’t want to take risks, the defenders immediately pass to the goalkeeper to complete their responsibility. This happens quite a lot in Italy, but less so in Spain because the players here are more technical.

– Is the fact that billionaires are pouring into football a positive thing? You once criticized the way Jose Mourinho was fired by the American owners of Roma, the club he led for 5 seasons?

– They don’t respect others, and Paolo Maldini was treated the same way in Milan. He can be fired, because the job of a coach always comes with the risk of having to leave at any time. But he cannot wait for Mourinho to come into the dressing room and say that he is no longer Roma’s coach, or that Maldini is no longer Milan’s sporting director.

Please! Let’s talk privately and then make a decision. To me, that is the minimum respect. But it no longer exists in football. The bosses of Lehman Brothers bank could give employees a cardboard box of stuff and kick them out into the street. That’s their style, but I don’t understand it.

I think someone like Maldini, who is part of Milan’s history, must be respectfully announced and leave at the end of the season. You can also fire Mourinho, but you don’t have to say it to him in the dressing room.