Ancelotti Turns Down Fenerbahce Millions For New Juve Deal
Saturday 24th February 2001
Carlo Ancelotti finally agreed a one-year contract extension at Juventus on Saturday, but admitted he had been offered better terms to coach Turkish club Fenerbahce. "If I was only thinking about money, I would have gone to Turkey," he said. "Fenerbahce offered me �1.3 million a year."
Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi had confirmed on Wednesday that Ancelotti had agreed in principle to stay on at Juventus, but it was not until Saturday afternoon that he finally put pen to paper on a new contract.
Ancelotti's new deal will expire at the end of the 2001-02 season when talks will again resume over extending his contract for another 12 months.
He will earn �750,000 next season with lucrative bonus clauses linked to the level of success he achieves.
Winning the Champions' League would net Ancelotti a cool �350,000, there's �300,000 at stake should Juve win the Serie A title next season, a further �170,000 should Juventus qualify for the Champions' League and the same amount again for winning the Coppa Italia.
Ancelotti has also been able to earmark the players he wants to ensure that success.
"I'd like to think that to have other great players I had to renounce a lot of money, but it's not true," he said. "I chose Juventus because it's a great club, and there's a good feeling with the owners and executives at the club.
"I was thinking about our future, even though I've been told that the more you earn, the more people respect you."
The Juve board has given Ancelotti the go ahead to sign a world class defender - with Parma's Fabio Cannavaro or Lilian Thuram top of the coach's wish list - a midfielder of similar stature - such as Arsenal's France international Patrick Vieira - and a wide midfielder - possibly Bari's Antonio Cassano.
Ancelotti led Parma to the runners-up spot, their highest-ever finish, in Serie A in his first season as coach in 1997 then joined Juventus in the spring of 1999 following the resignation of Marcello Lippi.
At the Stadium delle Alpi, despite inheriting a team containing the likes of Zidane, Davids and Del Piero, his time has been characterised so far by having defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
In the second leg of their Champions' League semi-final against Manchester United in Turin in 1999, Juve raced into a two-goal lead inside the first 15 minutes only to inexplicably collapse as United fought back to win 3-2.
Last year, Juventus led the way in Serie A only to blow the scudetto in bizarre fashion on the final day when they lost to lowly Perugia in a torrential rain storm.
An early exit in their return to the Champions' League in the autumn of 2000 only increased the pressure on Ancelotti.
Because of his Milanese connections - he had been an integral part of the AC Milan side that dominated European football at the end of the Eighties and early Nineties - he had never been very popular at the club, and, as the all-conquering side of the late Nineties began to grow old, many fans thought it was also time to replace the coach.
With Juve now second in Serie A, six points behind Lazio, general manager Luciano Moggi and the Agnelli family obviously have decided otherwise.
