By Ikolaba Olanrewaju
Real Madrid brought La Liga's title race to an end on Saturday with a 4-0 win over Espanyol, ensuring that Carlo Ancelotti became the first manager in history to win all of Europe's top five leagues.
The Italian coach failed to win a league title in his previous stint at the Santiago Bernabeu but has steered them to national glory in his first season back at the helm.
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After failing to win Serie A in his native Italy during his formative years as a manager with Reggiana, Parma and Juventus, Ancelotti's finally claimed his first league title in 2004 with AC Milan with a record total of 82 points from 34 games.
Ancelotti left Milan in 2009 having won just that sole league title and joined Chelsea that same summer. The Blues won the Premier League in his first season at the club, becoming the first team in the English top flight to break the 100-goal barrier since Tottenham in 1962/63.
While he was a popular figure at Chelsea, Ancelotti was sacked at the end of his second season after a disappointing campaign failed to live up to the first.
He then spent six months out of work before becoming the new manager of Paris Saint-Germain, and although he was unable to save their faltering 2011/12 title challenge, he did steer them to Ligue 1 glory the following year before Real Madrid came calling for the first time.
Ancelotti became the manager to finally win Real Madrid their tenth Champions League - 'La Decima' - but he was pipped to La Liga by Atletico Madrid that season, and then Barcelona before leaving Spain in 2015.
After a season out of the game, Ancelotti joined Bayern Munich in 2016 and strolled to the Bundesliga title in his only full season in Bavaria.
Middling spells with Napoli and Everton followed before Ancelotti was called upon to succeed former assistant coach and player Zinedine Zidane back at the Bernabeu, and has now secured his first domestic crown in five years, writing his name into history as the first manager to complete European football's elite set of league titles.
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