For Brazil, the logic is trophy-driven. Ancelotti’s reputation has been built on managing elite dressing rooms and winning under pressure, so a reported salary in the top bracket fits a federation chasing a long-awaited world title.
For England, the calculation appears slightly different.
This is not about development in the abstract. It is about trying to turn a strong generation into silverware.
The more interesting point is that pay and prospects do not always move together. Spain are the obvious counterexample. After their Euro 2024 triumph, they head into the next World Cup cycle as one of the strongest teams in the field, yet the report says Luis de la Fuente is not among the top earners.
That matters because it underlines a different model:
Other big nations sit somewhere in the middle, with established names such as Didier Deschamps, Ronald Koeman, Roberto Martinez and Lionel Scaloni reportedly earning strong but not market-leading salaries.
Manager pay tells you what a federation values, not what it will get back. Expensive hires can sharpen belief, but tournament football still turns on squad balance, health, timing and nerve. As the 2026 World Cup draws closer, the next storyline is simple: will the biggest salaries buy immediate returns for Brazil and England, or will a more settled contender like Spain make the stronger case for continuity?