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Managers or coaches play a very crucial role in football. They devise the strategies for the team and try to help the players adjust themselves to the team’s playing style both technically and tactically. Moreover, the players implement their strategies on the field and therefore, it is essential that the manager has a good rapport with them.
However, all players do not have the same capability and there are some exceptional ones who are more important for the team than his other teammates. Those are the players who can decide a game with a moment of individual brilliance and also win titles for their respective teams. They are the ones who are almost indispensable for the team and by extension, the manager.
Managers or coaches of all successful teams usually share a very good understanding with the talismanic player of that team. It is absolutely essential for the success of the team and such player-manager combinations are usually able to dictate terms in world football.
In this article, we discuss 5 of the most famous player-manager combinations of all-time:
#1 Pele-Mario Zagallo
It is quite obvious that the greatest player of them all had a good understanding with the manager of the best team he played for. The fact that his manager was his former teammate and a great player himself only made things easier for both.
Zagallo became the coach of Brazil months before the 1970 World Cup and convinced Pele to give his best for the team. They had together won the World Cup back in 1958 when a 17-year-old Pele announced his arrival on world football emphatically. Both of them had scored in the final against Sweden too.
Therefore, it was easy for Zagallo to persuade Pele to be at his best for Brazil in the 1970 World Cup. What followed was an exhibition of dazzling football dished out by the greatest bunch of players ever assembled in a football team.
Pele and his teammates like Gerson, Tostao, Jairzinho, Carlos Alberto and Clodoaldo won the World Cup with ease. Pele scored 4 goals in his final tournament for Brazil including one in the final against Italy.
He also played brilliantly against England and Uruguay. Zagallo’s faith on “O Rei” was vindicated as the greatest team of all time made the Jules Rimet trophy their own.
#2 Johan Cruyff-Rinus Michels
Two brilliant football minds combined in the early 1970s to usher in a new philosophy in world football. Michels and Cruyff combined to make Ajax Amsterdam and the Dutch national team almost unbeatable.
Their philosophy of “total football” was based on quick improvisation by the players in terms of positioning themselves and wresting possession back. Michels and Cruyff later went to Barcelona and inculcated the same playing style there which Barcelona’s football still continues to be based upon.
Ajax won 3 consecutive European Cups from 1971 to 1973 and became the World’s best team. Cruyff scored 265 goals from 325 matches for them and continued the good work for the Dutch national side.
Michels was the coach of the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup and enthralled the world with their “total football”. Their short passing and free-flowing game, however, was not enough to win them the trophy as they lost 1-2 to hosts West Germany in the final.
Players like Ruud Krol, Johan Neeskens and Suurbier were there, but Cruyff was their talisman and won the Golden Ball for being the best player in that tournament.
#3 Diego Maradona-Carlos Bilardo
It was not easy to manage a mercurial but incredibly gifted Maradona, but Bilardo managed to do that in the 1986 World Cup and those two wrote the most glorious chapter in the history of Argentine football together.
Maradona was almost indescribably good in that tournament and almost single-handedly won them the trophy. He scored 5 goals in the tournament including one against England that is still considered to be the “goal of the century”.
Bilardo was cautious in his approach and his teams usually gave more emphasis on defence. However, the 1986 team revolved around Maradona and players like Jorge Valdano, Burruchaga and Brown only complimented him to win the coveted trophy.
Bilardo and Maradona again led Argentina to another World Cup final in 1990 but lost to West Germany. Those two had an infamous fall-out much later and their relationship became strained, but that has nothing to do with the fact that they were a brilliant combination for Argentine football.
#4 Lothar Matthaus-Franz Beckenbauer
The two greatest players Germany have ever produced combined to make their national team a great force in world football. Beckenbauer was the German coach in the 1986 World Cup and they reached the final.
They fought tremendously but lost 2-3 to an Argentine team inspired by Diego Maradona. Lothar Matthaus was given the responsibility to man-mark Maradona and did a wonderful job till the dying minutes of the match when Maradona delivered a through ball to Burruchaga, who finished superbly to win the match.
Those two again combined in the 1990 World Cup and this time won the tournament for the Germans. Matthaus played as an attacking midfielder in the tournament and scored 4 goals.
He did not win the Golden Ball but was widely recognized as the best player of the World Cup by football experts worldwide. Germany’s football was typically efficient and almost faultless in 1990.
Matthaus lifted the World Cup as the German captain and Beckenbauer became the first man to win the World Cup both as a player and a manager.
#5 Lionel Messi-Pep Guardiola
Guardiola possesses a brilliant football mind and got the opportunity to work with Messi, one of the finest footballers of all time. Those two demonstrated the perfect implementation of the football philosophy firmly rooted in La Masia, Barcelona’s football academy.
Barcelona conquered Europe twice in the space of three years, beating Manchester United in the final on both the occasions. They also won the LaLiga thrice under Guardiola.
Guardiola also made Messi play as a false 9 for the first time. In that arrangement, Messi started out as the centre-forward but fell back to the midfield frequently to retrieve the ball and dictate the play from there.
It also made things difficult for the opposition defenders as they were not sure whether to follow Messi or stay back. Barcelona had brilliant footballers like Xavi and Andres Iniesta in their team, but Messi evolved as the best player in the world under Guardiola’s tutelage.
Those two also made Barcelona the premier club team in the world and Guardiola’s legacy still lives on with the Catalan giants.
