Real Madrid have reportedly drawn up a five-man managerial shortlist of potential replacements for Carlo Ancelotti.
The 64-year-old will see his contract as manager of the Spanish giants expire in June 2024 and he has been strongly linked with a departure from the Santiago Bernabeu.
Brazilian news outlet Globo claims that Ancelotti has agreed to take over as the Brazil national team manager in either January of next year or after his contract at Real Madrid expires.
Brazil Under-21s coach Ramon Menezes has been placed in temporary charge of the senior team while they search for a successor to Tite, who stepped down from his role as manager following the nation's quarter-final exit at the 2022 World Cup.
Ancelotti has previously played down suggestions that he will leave Real Madrid and intends to remain in charge for the 2023-24 campaign.
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After managing Los Blancos between 2013 and 2015, Ancelotti returned to the Bernabeu for a second stint in charge in 2021 and has since won six trophies, including the La Liga title and Champions League in 2021-22 and the Copa del Rey in 2022-23.
Should Ancelotti decide to part ways with Real Madrid, reports in Spain indicate that five managers have already been identified as possible replacements by club president Florentino Perez.
Former Los Blancos players Raul and Xabi Alonso are both said to be on the list of candidates, along with former manager Jose Mourinho, while Julian Nagelsmann and Antonio Conte are also on Perez's radar.
Both Raul and Alonso came through the club's academy system as players, and the former has since spent the last three years in charge of the Castilla youth side, winning 57 of his 130 matches.
Alonso, meanwhile, began coaching with Real Sociedad B between 2019 and 2022 before taking the reins at Bayer Leverkusen in October last year, helping the German club secure a top-six finish in the Bundesliga and qualify for next season's Europa League.
Real Madrid may struggle to lure the 41-year-old back to Spain, though, as he revealed last month that he intends to remain in charge of Leverkusen for the 2023-24 campaign.
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As for Mourinho, the 60-year-old ended the 2022-23 season as a losing finalist with Roma in the Europa League and stated after the match that he was uncertain about his long-term future with the Italian club, where he has spent the last two seasons in charge.
The Portuguese boss, who has been linked with the Paris Saint-Germain job, was Real Madrid boss for three seasons between 2010 and 2013 and a remarkable return to the Spanish capital could be an option should Ancelotti depart.
Nagelsmann is another who is understood to have held talks with PSG over replacing Christophe Galtier, but the former Bayern Munich boss is allegedly no longer in the running to take the reins of the French champions.
The 35-year-old, who was also linked with both Spurs and Chelsea last month, turned down the chance to manage Real Madrid back in 2018, stating that he "did not feel comfortable" accepting such a big job offer in the early stages of his managerial career.
Having spent time at both RB Leipzig and Bayern since then, Nagelsmann may now reconsider a move to Real Madrid should they approach him this summer.
Another option for Perez is former Spurs head coach Conte who has been out of work since his sour exit from the North London club in March, but it remains to be seen whether the four-time Serie A winner is keen to make a swift return to management.
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