Legends of the game
There have been so many legendary football coaches over the decades, that it’s quite challenging to name the very best of the bunch. But we’re sure you won’t disagree that the following five deserve their places on this list of all-time greatest coaches.
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Giovanni Trapattoni
Coach, manager, and former player, Giovanni Trapattoni has worked with the likes of Juventus, Inter Milan, and Bayern Munich over his four-decade-long career. Trapattoni is one of only five coaches to have ever won league titles in four different European countries. And other than Udo Lattek, Trapattoni is the only coach to have won all three of Europe’s main tournaments: the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and the European Cup. Also, teams he coached over his long career won seven Series A championships, one Primeira Liga title, and one Austrian Bundesliga tournament. If you want to know what it’s like to coach and manage a team, why not play great video games like the Football Manager series of games? There are plenty of other footie games available online too, such as the fabulous Football: Champions Cup slot game, in which you can choose your team and lead it to glory against other countries in the Euro 2016 championship. Simply click here, and you can start playing the Football: Champions Cup slot.
Arrigo Sacchi
Arrigo Sacchi is one of the few coaches who never played football professionally. In fact, he started out working as a shoe salesman. Sacchi began his coaching career with his local Italian team Baracca. But Sacchi’s coaching breakthrough came when he moved to Fiorentina. His achievements with the club led him to move to Parma, where he gained even more successes. Parma even beat mighty Milan on several occasions, which eventually led Milan club owner Silvio Berlusconi appointing Sacchi as manager of the team. From 1991 to 1996, Arrigo Sacchi was head coach of Italy’s national team. In 1994, he led them to the final of the FIFA World Cup, narrowly losing out to Brazil in an edge-of-your-seat penalty shoot-out.
Miguel Muñoz
As a football player, Spaniard Miguel Muñoz appeared in 347 matches for Real Madrid and won seven caps for Spain. But his coaching career was even more successful. He began coaching for Real’s reserve team before being appointed coach of the main squad in 1959. Under Muñoz’s guidance, Real Madrid had one of their most successful eras. The club won La Liga nine times, including five-in-a-row and another three consecutively. Among European matches, Muñoz led Real Madrid to two wins in the European Cup in 1960 and 1966. After 16 seasons, he left the club. Muñoz was the team’s longest-serving and most successful coach.
Ottmar Hitzfeld
German striker, coach, and manager Ottmar Hitzfeld has many accolades to his name. As a coach, his career began in Switzerland. In 1983, he coached FC Zug for a year. Hitzfeld then moved on to coach for FC Aarau the following season, where he stayed for four years. It was with FC Aarau where Hitzfeld achieved his first success as a coach, winning the 1985 Swiss Cup. That win gained the attention of the major Swiss club Grasshopper in Zürich. From 1988 to 1991, Hitzfeld gained four trophies. By 2008, he was taking over coaching duties for the Swiss national team and leading them to many successes. He stayed with the Switzerland team until 2014 when he retired. Ottmar Hitzfeld is undoubtedly one of the most successful coaches of European football. He has twice been elected World Coach of the Year.
Rinus Michels
Rinus Michels was a player and coach in Dutch association football. His whole playing career was spent with AFC Ajax, which he later went on to manage. Michels has many coaching achievements to his name. Most notably, he helped both Ajax and Barcelona to win the Spanish League. And with four tenures as the coach of the Netherlands national team, Michels helped the squad to reach the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and to win the 1988 UEFA European Championship. He ended his coaching profession with Bayer Leverkusen in 1989. In 1999, FIFA named Rinus Michels the Coach of the Century, and in 2007, The Times named him the greatest post-war football coach.