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A football manager has a plethora of responsibilities ranging from making team selections, formulating strategies, overseeing the training of players and keeping them motivated during a match.
Football managers also have a say about the players they want to sign, sell or loan out. Thus, it is not surprising that when teams fail to produce desired results, more often than not, it is the manager who is shown the boot.
Interestingly enough, the term 'manager' is almost exclusively used in British football. In the rest of continental Europe, the more popular term is 'coach' or 'trainer'. However, for the sake of simplicity, we'll stick with the term 'manager' in this article.
The governing body of football in Europe, UEFA, mandates the requirement of a coaching license called UEFA Pro License for a person to become a full-time football manager at a top-tier club on a permanent basis (any duration beyond 12 weeks) and to take charge of teams in the Champions League and Europa League.
Gone are the days when football managers were afforded the time to build their legacies at a club. In the cut-throat world of modern-day professional football, managers are required to hit the ground running and need to be on their toes, exhibit tactical flexibility and think out of the box to outplay and outmanoeuvre the opposition because there is a lot at stake. To be able to accomplish the same, football managers need the right kind of personnel (read 'players') at their disposal.
Often times, football managers become synonymous with their preference for a particular playing style. Pep Guardiola introduced the famed tiki taka style of football that involved a possession-based philosophy featuring a series of short, quick passes, one which yielded rich dividends for Barcelona.
Jose Mourinho initiated the infamous 'parking the bus' style, a tactic known to suffocate the creativity of ball-playing teams. Though it doesn't necessarily make for aesthetic football, it can be a pretty effective tactic to churn out results against supposedly stronger teams.
In more recent times, Jurgen Klopp became renowned for his Gegenpress (counter-pressing) and 'heavy metal' football, one that involves pressing the opponent high up the pitch, reclaiming the ball and scoring in a blitz without allowing the opposition to realise what hit them.
Five most successful football managers
Regardless of the strategy employed, football is a 'result-oriented' game at the end of the day. It is wins and titles that eventually define the legacies of successful football clubs and their managers.
On that note, let us have a look at the five most successful managers in world football in terms of trophies won.
#5 Ottmar Hitzfeld (25 trophies)
In a managerial career that spanned over four decades, Ottmar Hitzfeld won the first of 25 trophies with Swiss club FC Aarau in 1985 before grabbing the attention of big boys Grasshopper Club Zurich with whom he won back-to-back Swiss League and Swiss Cup titles and had a lone Swiss Super Cup triumph.
Hitzfeld returned to his native Germany and took over the reins of Borussia Dortmund in 1991. Though trophies were not immediately forthcoming, the North Rhine-Westphalia club experienced an immediate upturn in their fortunes as they finished second in the Bundesliga and qualified for the UEFA Cup next season, where they lost to Juventus in the final.
Three years later, Hitzfeld delivered Dortmund their first trophy in six years when the club won the 1994-95 Bundesliga title. The next year, Dortmund duly defended their league title but European success had to wait for one more year.
In their second meeting with Juventus in a European final in five years, it was Dortmund's turn to smile as Hitzfeld's men beat the Bianconeri 3-1 in the 1996-97 Champions League final.
Hitzfeld won the "World Coach of the Year" for his exploits that year before he left Dortmund to join Bavarian giants Bayern Munich where he would have the most prolific spell of his managerial career during a successful decade-long stint at the club that yielded 14 trophies.
The German led Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga-German Cup double in 1998-99 and 1999-00. Hitzfeld almost won the club their first continental treble in 1999 when the Bavarian giants led Manchester United by a goal leading into injury time only for the English club to score twice to register an epic victory.
However, Hitzfeld wouldn't be denied Champions League success with Bayern Munich for long. Two years later, Bayern beat Valencia on penalties to win their first title in the competition in 25 years. In the process, Hitzfeld became the first of three managers in the Champions League era to win the competition for two different clubs.
Hitzfeld left the club after facing the sack in 2004. Three years later, he returned to win his seventh Bundesliga title and the German Cup, which happened to be the last two titles of his managerial career in club football.
In a subsequent managerial stint in international football, Hitzfeld led Switzerland in the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups before calling it quits for good.
#4 Pep Guardiola (29 trophies)
Pep Guardiola is one of the most successful managers to have graced the game of football. After a moderately successful career as a player, the Spaniard achieved unprecedented success in a managerial role.
Despite no prior managerial experience in senior club football, Guardiola was catapulted to the Barcelona top job after the club endured a trophyless 2007-08 campaign.
What followed next was an era of unprecedented domination and success for the Blaugrana as Guardiola's brought the tiki taka back to vogue and managed to capture the imagination of fans and experts while leaving the best of opponents clueless and helpless.
The key to the success of Guardiola's tiki taka style of play was the presence of ball-playing defenders and the tireless midfield duo of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, whose inch-perfect passes to Lionel Messi in closely-packed spaces breached open the tightest of defences and yielded rich dividends. Barcelona won the continental treble that season and in 2009, won a record six titles.
Following a hugely successful four-year spell that yielded 14 titles - a tally that included two Champions League and three La Liga titles among other honours - Guardiola left Camp Nou and joined Bayern Munich after a brief sabbatical.
The brilliant Spanish tactician made an immediate impact in Bavaria as he delivered a trio of Bundesliga titles in as many seasons but Champions League success under Guardiola would elude Bayern Munich. Nevertheless, during his short but successful spell in Germany, he became the most successful Bundesliga manager in history in terms of points won per game.
Guardiola arrived in Manchester City in the summer of 2016 and heralded the most successful period in the club's history as City smashed records galore during successive Premier League triumphs.
However, despite winning seven trophies in England, the same number which he won in Germany, Guardiola's reign may prove to be an unsuccessful one if the Spanish tactician is unable to deliver the elusive Champions League - the holy grail of European club football.
Nevertheless, the brilliance of Guardiola would never be tempered by his inability to win the Champions League for a club not named Barcelona.
#3 Jose Mourinho (33 trophies)
Jose Mourinho is perhaps the biggest living embodiment of the fact that it is not an absolute necessity to have played the game at the highest level to become one of the best football managers in the world.
Mourinho played a few matches for the senior teams at Rio Ave, Belenenses and Sesimbra in his native Portugal but quickly realised that his aptitude lay elsewhere. He dropped out of a business school and opted for sports science and attended football coaching courses.
The first opportunity arose in 1992 when newly-appointed English coach at Sporting Lisbon, Sir Bobby Robson, required an English-speaking local coach. Mourinho impressed Robson enough to move with him to Porto and then to Barcelona. When Robson left Camp Nou, Mourinho stayed back as the assistant coach of the team.
In 2000, Mourinho had his first taste of managing a top-tier team when Benfica came calling, and the Portuguese didn't look back from there. Two years later, he joined Porto and immediately transformed the flagging fortunes of the team by introducing innovative 'pressuring' style of play, training methods and making shrewd signings in the transfer market.
Mourinho delivered the treble in 2003 as Porto won the league, league cup and the UEFA Cup, where they beat Celtic. The next season was even better. Porto retained their league title with ease. Although they lost in the Portuguese Cup final, Mourinho made his mark on the European scene when Porto eliminated Manchester United in the Round of 16 before going on to lift their second Champions League title.
Chelsea came calling in the summer of 2004, and Mourinho famously introduced himself as the 'Special One'. Staying true to his words, the Portuguese manager led the English club to their first league title in five decades as Chelsea romped to the finish line by conceding a meagre 15 goals all season. Another league title followed the next season before Mourinho left the English football scene as quickly as he had arrived.
At his next stop at Inter Milan, Mourinho won the league title in 2009 before delivering a stunning continental treble the next year as the Nerazzurri put on a defensive masterclass to oust Barcelona in the Champions League.
Mourinho's exploits, particularly in the Champions League, caught the attention of Real Madrid who were yearning for success in the competition after winning their eighth title in 2002. The Portuguese led Los Blancos to three consecutive Champions League semi-finals and won the Liga and Copa Del Rey titles as well.
After three moderately successful years in Spain, Mourinho arrived for his second stint with Chelsea in 2013, this time as the 'Happy One', and won his third Premier League title for the club. But like his first stint, he could not complete three full seasons at Stamford Bridge as he faced the sack after a run of uninspiring results.
Mourinho joined Manchester United in the summer of 2016 and became the first manager at the club to win a title (EFL Cup) in his debut season before also delivering the Europa League that campaign, which remains his 33rd and latest trophy at a football club. The next season, Mourinho took the Red Devils to second in the Premier League table, their best finish in the post Sir Alex Ferguson era.
After facing the sack the next season following a wretched start to the campaign, Mourinho now manages another Premier League club, Tottenham Hotspur. Ironically, the Portuguese has won more competitive games against his present club than against any other.
#2 Mircea Lucescu (35 trophies)
75-year-old Romanian Mircea Lucescu is one of the most accomplished football managers in the world.
The winner of six Romanian league titles as a player and the captain of Romania at the 1970 FIFA World Cup has achieved managerial success in five different countries - Romania, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.
After a short stint with the Romanian national team whom he took to their first European Championships, the much-travelled football manager won seven titles in his decade long stint in his native country, a tally that included three league triumphs.
Lucescu then moved to Italy where he managed a slew of clubs like Pisa, Brescia, Reggia and Inter Milan where his lone title was an Italian Cup win with Brescia in 1991-92.
The veteran football manager's next stop was at Galatasaray in Turkey where he beat Real Madrid in the 2000 UEFA Super Cup. The next season, Lucescu delivered the Turkish league title but faced the sack before spending an unhappy season at Besiktas despite winning the league title there too.
In 2004, the Romanian football manager joined Shakhtar Donetsk where he would enjoy the most prolific stint of his managerial career. Lucescu won seven Ukrainian Super Cups, six Ukrainian Cups, eight Ukrainian league titles and the 2008-09 UEFA Cup.
Lucescu then won the Russian Super Cup during his two-season stay at Zenit St. Peterburg before returning to international football management (with Turkey) for the first time in over four decades. The veteran football manager now coaches Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev.
#1 Alex Ferguson (48 trophies)
Sir Alex Ferguson is arguably the greatest football manager in the world. The Scotsman did not just win titles galore (48 to be exact) but also left behind a rich legacy at the clubs he managed.
In a moderately successful 17-year playing career, Ferguson played as a striker and scored over 170 goals in 300 odd apearances for six different clubs before taking up his first managerial role with East Stirlingshire in his native Scotland.
In a decade-long managerial stint in Scottish football, the veteran football manager won 10 trophies (all for Aberdeen), a tally that included three league triumphs, four Scottish Cup titles and the 1983-84 UEFA Cup.
After a brief foray into international football management with Scotland, Sir Alex Ferguson arrived at Manchester United in the winter of 1986 and changed the fortunes of the English football club for good. The formerly mid-table club became the team to be beat in the English top flight, winning a record 13 Premier League titles to go with domestic honours aplenty.
The Old Trafford giants clinched their only continental treble in 1999 after famously overcoming a 0-1 deficit against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final by scoring twice in injury time. Nine years later, a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired Manchester United beat Chelsea in the first-ever all-English Champions League final as Ferguson won his sixth trophy in Europe.
When he finally bid adieu to football management in 2013, he had delivered 38 trophies with Manchester United, the last of them being the 2012-13 Premier League title, during a rich 27-year association with the club. Perhaps, not surprisingly, United are yet to win the league title seven years after the departure of their legendary manager.
In a testament to his rich legacy, many players managed by the two-time World's Best Club Coach award winner went on to manage football teams, with one of the most famous ones being Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who is the present manager of Manchester United.
