Best Football Managers Of All Time – Top 15
4. Pep Guardiola
As a manager, Guardiola has won 31 trophies since the start of his managing career. That makes him one of the most successful managers in world football. He is also considered by many players, other managers and commentators to be amongst the best footballing mind in the world.
Started with Barcelona, then he took reigns over Bayern and now is showing his magic at Manchester City. Under him, Manchester City became the first-ever team to score 100 points in a Premier League season in 2017-18. His free-flowing style of football has attracted praise from all around the world. He has won three Premier League titles in five seasons in England.
3. Bill Shankly
Shankly took charge of Liverpool when they were in the Second Division and rebuilt the team into a major force in English and European football.
He led Liverpool to the Second Division Championship to gain promotion to the top-flight First Division in 1962 before winning three First Division Championships, two FA Cups, four Charity Shields, and one UEFA Cup.
Shankly announced his surprise retirement from football a few weeks after Liverpool had won the 1974 FA Cup Final, having managed the club for 15 years, and was succeeded by his long-time assistant Bob Paisley. He led the Liverpool team out for the last time at Wembley for the 1974 FA Charity Shield.
2. Rinus Michels
Michels is regarded as the inventor of ‘total football’. He became most notable for his coaching achievements, having won the European Cup with Ajax and the Spanish cup with Barcelona. He also had four tenures as coach of the Netherlands national team, which he led to reach the final match of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and to win the 1988 UEFA European Champions Cup.
Michels was named Coach of the Century by FIFA in 1999 and in 2007 the greatest post-war football coach by The Times. In January 2017, Michels was named among the ten greatest coaches since the foundation of UEFA in 1954.
1. Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson is undoubtedly the greatest Premier League manager of all time. He managed St.Mirren, Aberdeen and the Scotland national team before being appointed as the manager of Manchester United in November 1986.
During his 26 years with Manchester United, he won 38 trophies, including 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two UEFA Champions League titles. He was knighted in the 1999 Queen’s birthday honour list, for his services to the game. Ferguson holds the record for longest-serving manager of Manchester United, having overtaken Sir Matt Busby’s record on 19 December 2010. He retired from management at the end of the 2012–13 season, having won the Premier League in his final season.