Top 10 Famous Football Managers who Smoke

They’re always under pressure and when they have that urge to light up a cigarette, who’s to stop them? We’ve had footballers smoking in public and managers smoking on the sidelines, but once they’ve achieved something in life, the smoke goes out of the window.

Here’s a list of the top 10, well-known football managers who used to smoke while managing their country or club.

10. Sam Allardyce

It is no secret that Big Sam always enjoyed a puff on the bench. Fans even claim to have seen him post-match in the hotel, wearing nothing more than a bath robe while smoking a big cigar with a glass of red wine in his hand at the time.

9. Zdenek Zeman

He’s managed 19 clubs, mostly in Italian football, and most of his players would vouch for the fact that Zeman barely opened his mouth while on the sidelines; well except to smoke another cigarette.

Zeman looked less like a manager and more like that kid at school who hung around in the shadows, dragging on a crafty roll up and mumbling on about Nick Cave.

8. Gianluca Vialli

While on one hand, Vialli does admit to the evils of smoking; on the other, he also claims that it’s a healthier alternative to getting drunk every night.

During his playing career, Vialli was caught smoking many-a-times after being substituted. It is also rumoured that during the 1990 World Cup, he was spotted trying to smoke sneakily next to the bench.

7. Ricardo Lavolpe

Lavolpe’s smoking habits came into the limelight during his term as Mexico’s manager. He was warned by FIFA for smoking during Mexico’s 2006 World Cup opening game against Iran. Lavolpe responded by telling FIFA that he’d rather give up football than smoking.

He did, however, quit smoking and began tucking into donuts instead. He candidly described how much he enjoyed it, adding that if he was drinking on the job it might affect his managerial skills, but that no-one has been dismissed for being “smoked-out and disorderly”

6. Slaven Bilic

Low-life Mafia style suits, chain-smoking on the touchline and member of a thrash metal band called Rawbau – Slaven Bilic is probably one of the coolest managers ever.

He was even issued a warning by the Turkish Football Federation after being caught smoking inside the football stadium, despite the no-smoking ban.

5. Marcello Lippi

Lippi has been smoking since his mid-teens, and it doesn’t seem as if he would be kicking the habit anytime soon. Cigarettes have now paved the way to cigars, and Lippi was seen chomping on a cigar after winning the 2006 World Cup final.

4. Carlo Ancelloti

Ancelloti began smoking at the age of 25, and he hasn’t managed to kick the habit as yet. He was even reprimanded for smoking on the bench when he visited Celtic as manager of AC Milan in 2007.

“Until three years ago in Italy you could smoke on the bench,” he explains.

“I used to like that, although I remember one time, when we were playing Ajax in the Champions League quarter-final in 2003, we scored in the last minute, and Gennaro Gattuso jumps off the bench and grabs me from behind. I nearly swallowed the thing.”

3. Joachim Loew

The Germany manager had critics hounding him for smoking during Germany’s 3-2 victory over Portugal.

“What can I say? That’s my personal business. I sometimes smoke a cigarette or have a glass of red wine in the evening. That is nothing outrageous,” Loew said.

2. Johan Cruyff

“Football has given me everything in this life; tobacco almost took it all away.”

Cruyff smoked 20 cigarettes a day until he underwent a double heart bypass surgery after the cigarettes and stress caught up with him. To help him give up on smoking, Chupa Chups Group, a Barcelona-based confectioner, sent him a box of lollipops.

1. Diego Maradona