What’s the story?
UEFA went through their archives to select the 10 best coaches in European history. The article published on UEFA.com without a particular order read, ‘Over the summer of 2016, UEFA.com published a series of articles tracking the careers of the ten coaches we felt had the greatest impact on European football since UEFA's foundation.’
The list features the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Johan Cruyff, Vicente Del Bosque and José Mourinho among the great managers of the past.
In case you didn’t know...
UEFA was formed in 1954 and has, since then, been the primary governing and regulatory body for European football.
Also read: Five Premier League teams named in UEFA annual report as 'super-clubs'
The comprehensive list outlining each manager’s accolades and what they did for the game in Europe, was published yesterday on the UEFA website. The list of managers span the last six decades of European football and each has lifted major trophies for their clubs or nations.
The heart of the matter
UEFA’s list of managers, who defined European football since the organisation’s inception, is a formidable one, with the greatest ever managers to have graced Europe named with a separate article on each of them. The list was posted after intensive research from their archives since the organisation’s inception.
Here is the full list:
| Manager | Major Teams Managed |
|---|---|
| Brian Clough | Nottingham Forest |
| Johan Cruyff | Barcelona, Ajax |
| Vicente Del Bosque | Real Madrid, Spain |
| Sir Alex Ferguson | Aberdeen, Manchester United |
| Helenio Herrera | Barcelona, Inter Milan |
| Udo Lattek | Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund |
| Valeri Lobanovskiy | Dynamo Kyiv, USSR |
| Rinus Michels | Netherlands, Ajax, Barcelona |
| Jose Mourinho | Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Man Utd |
| Arrigo Sacchi | AC Milan, Italy |
UEFA have surely selected a great list of managers and this could be the beginning of more such comprehensive top 10 lists from Europe’s major football-governing organisation. However, a top 10 list of teams, unless only consisting of old(historical) ones, could cause an uproar in the footballing community regarding bias and preference to certain clubs or countries within the organisation. Unsurprisingly, UEFA have picked the cream of the crop through their 62-year-history.
What’s next?
UEFA have surely selected a great list of managers and this could be the beginning of more such comprehensive top 10 lists from Europe’s major football-governing organisation. However, a top 10 list of teams, unless only consisting of old (historical) ones, could cause an uproar in the footballing community regarding bias and preference to certain clubs or countries within the organisation.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Managers influence the game and their clubs or nations a great deal – from the philosophy to the football played on the pitch. However, the importance of good results and winning trophies precedes anything else, so for a manager to be deemed successful in Europe, he would have to emulate the feats of the greats mentioned here.
That being said, UEFA have overlooked names such as Marcello Lippi, Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola, who, in their own right, have impacted the game in Europe significantly as well.
Lippi, in particular, had a significant impact on football winning the World Cup while he managed Italy in 2006. But, UEFA have shown a preference to the masters of the past, who have helped define the game as we know it. The result is a tactical and historical based list in the end.
