Carlo Ancelotti and Edin Terzic have both used their tactical skill and judgement to help guide their sides, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, to the Champions League Final at Wembley. While Ancelotti, at the age of 64, has been there, done that and got the t-shirt, Terzic is still very much in his managerial infancy. It’s been a dream start at Dortmund for Terzic, who only took over the reins permanently at the start of the 2022/23 season, his first official managerial role. Here we look at the managerial greats who have led some of the biggest clubs on the globe to glory in the greatest European club competition in football, the Champions League (formerly the European Cup).
Embed from Getty ImagesEuropean Football’s Tactical Titans
There have been a number of memorable and impressive managerial achievements in the various European club competitions down the years. Unai Emery, who is currently transforming Aston Villa’s fortunes, led both Sevilla and Villarreal to Europa League success on four occasions. Three times with Sevilla, in three consecutive years (2014-2016) and once with Villarreal (2021).
Another Spanish supremo, Rafa Benitez, also guided sides to UEFA Cup/Europa League glory. Valencia in 2004 and Chelsea in 2013. However, his greatest European hour would come sandwiched in the middle of those triumphs. In May 2005, Rafa’s Reds (Liverpool) would famously roar back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan on penalties to win the Champions League.
Trapattoni’s Trophy Chasers
Giovanni Trapattoni, who won the European Cup (twice) and the European Cup Winners’ Cup as a player with AC Milan during the 1960’s, also grabbed silverware galore when in the managerial hotseat. His European success as boss covered a 16-year period. Trapattoni won the first of four European crowns with Juventus in 1977 (UEFA Cup). His last was the UEFA Cup with Juve too, in 1993. In between those triumphs, Il Trap won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1984 and the European Cup in 1985 (both again with ‘The Old Lady’) and the UEFA Cup with Inter Milan in 1991.
Giovanni Trapattoni gained an abundance of managerial knowledge from another European great, Nereo Rocco, when he was an AC Milan player. Rocco, who is still Milan’s longest-serving manager, led ‘I Rossoneri’ to two European Cup successes in 1963 and 1969 and two European Cup Winners Cup triumphs in 1968 and 1973.
Embed from Getty ImagesJose Mourinho – The Special One’s Euro Adventures
Like Giovanni Trapattoni, Jose Mourinho has also guided two Italian sides to European glory and also picked up five European titles in total. However, ‘The Special One’ went a step further, as three of those five successes also came with clubs in other countries. He kicked off his European crusade in his own backyard, when helping Porto claim back-to-back successes. The Dragons, under Mourinho’s guidance, lifted the UEFA Cup in 2003 and then a year later, the holy grail of the Champions League in 2004.
It would be a further six years until the charismatic Portuguese figurehead led another side to European glory. In his first Italian job, Mourinho claimed a third Euro title (and a second Champions League trophy) with Inter Milan in 2010. Mourinho may have missed out on a European crown in two spells with Chelsea, but he did add a second UEFA Cup, now known as the Europa League of course, to his list of managerial achievements, when the Man Utd boss in 2017. Mourinho’s 5th and final Euro title (for now) came 19 years after he celebrated his first, when he led Roma to the Europa Conference League in 2022.
Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils Rule The European Roost
Alex Ferguson took over the reins at Old Trafford on 6 November 1986 and it took him until 1990 to secure his first silverware with Man Utd (the FA Cup). However, once he started the canny Scot couldn’t stop. He guided the Red Devils to their first European title in 23 years when they lifted the European Cup Winners Cup in 1991. Of course that wasn’t Fergie’s first European success. Aberdeen had amazingly lifted the same European title under Ferguson’s leadership eight years earlier (1983).
Alex Ferguson’s biggest European accomplishment would come in 1999 however, when his Man Utd side pulled off one of the most dramatic late comebacks to clinch the Champions League title. Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer both netted in injury time to seal a famous 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. Nine years later, there would be more nervous, but overjoyed Man Utd fans, as Fergie’s Red Devils clinched another Champions League crown, beating Chelsea on penalties in the 2008 Final.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe European Cup’s Managerial Elite
While the likes of Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Nereo Rocco all won European’s elite competition on two occasions, there are four managers who sit above them on the all-time European Cup/Champions League winner’s list. The first manager to claim three European Cup successes was the great Bob Paisley, whose Liverpool team took Europe by storm in the late 1970s/early 1980s. He starred for the Mersey Reds as a player in the post World War 2 era and in his first full season at Anfield (1946/47), he played a major part in Liverpool claiming their first league title in almost 25 years.
Paisley may have hung up his boots in 1954, but he became a vital part of the Anfield backroom staff, and the arrival of Bill Shankly in December 1959 was a huge turning point for him. Paisley, alongside Reuben Bennett and Joe Fagan, were members of Shankly’s famous ‘Boot Room’, a place where Liverpool’s tactics and plans were honed to perfection. As well as a tactical whizz, Paisley was also a trained physiotherapist and Shankly relied on his technical advice immensely. Liverpool team injuries were few and far between compared to other sides and Paisley received much praise as a result. Impressively, in the 1965–66 season, when Liverpool won the league title and reached the European Cup Winners Cup final, they only used fourteen players in the entire season.
Bob Paisley Takes Over The Reins From Bill Shankly
Bill Shankly announced his retirement from the Liverpool hotseat in 1974 and Bob Paisley was the obvious choice to replace him. Those who had doubts, wouldn’t have them for long, as Paisley added a piece of silverware to the Anfield trophy cabinet in every one of the 9 years he was Liverpool manager, bar his first season in the hotseat. In the 1975/76 season, Liverpool under Paisley’s guidance picked up the English League title plus the UEFA Cup.
The following season, Liverpool retained their English League title, but went one better in Europe, claiming the club’s first ever European Cup trophy. The Reds showed it wasn’t a fluke, as they remained kings of Europe in the 1977/78 season too. Liverpool’s third and Paisley’s final European Cup success came in 1981. The final was another tight affair as it had been at Wembley three years previously. Alan Kennedy was the goal-scoring hero on this occasion, as the Reds defeated Real Madrid 1-0 in Paris.
Zinedine Zidane – The Real Deal
Like Bob Paisley, Zinedine Zidane also won Europe’s elite club competition on three occasions and with the same club too. 14 years after winning the Champions League as a player with Real Madrid (2001/02), the French World Cup winner led the Spanish giants to European triumph as manager. In a dramatic and tense 2016 Champions League Final, Real Madrid held their nerve to beat their city rivals, Atletico Madrid, on penalties at the San Siro in Milan.
Zinedine Zidane may have won the same number of European Cup titles as Bob Paisley as manager, but ZZ went one further than the Liverpool great, as he became the first ever manager to win three consecutive European Cup crowns in-a-row. Following on from their 2016 penalty shootout UCL Final victory, Real Madrid also claimed the Champions League crown in 2017 (4-1 vs Juventus) and 2018 too (3-1 vs Liverpool) under Zidane’s leadership.
Embed from Getty ImagesPep Powers His Way To European Glory
Pep Guardiola is the third 3-time European Cup winning manager. Like Zinedine Zidane, Pep would win the European Cup as a player and then go on to secure the title with the same club as a manager. That club being Barcelona of course. In the 1991/92 season, the last edition of the European Cup before it was re-launched as the Champions League, Guardiola was a vital cog in the Barca side that lifted the trophy.
Pep Guardiola would be handed the keys to the Camp Nou fortress at the start of the 2008/09 season. He proved himself a natural at the managerial game from the word go. In one of the most memorable seasons in Barcelona’s history, the Catalan giants claimed three trophies under his guidance. One of those three trophies they won during that 2008/09 season was the Champions League. At the age of 37, Guardiola became the second youngest man to manage a European Cup winning team, after Jose Villalonga in the 1950s. Barcelona defeated Man Utd in a UCL Final for a second time in the space of three seasons when Pep’s Catalan crusaders claimed the title once again in 2011 at Wembley.
Despite some very memorable years at the Bayern Munich helm, Pep didn’t pick up any of the major European trophies during his time in Germany. There would be a gap of 12 years between his second Champions League triumph as manager and his third. His last/latest success in Europe’s top club competition finally came on June 10th 2023, with Man City clinching a narrow 1-0 win over Inter Milan in Istanbul.
Embed from Getty ImagesCan King Carlo Clinch A Fifth Champions League Crown?
It’s Carlo Ancelotti who sits pretty at the top of the European Cup winning manager’s standings, with four successes. Similar to Pep Guardiola and Zinedine Zidane, Ancelotti was also a European hero as a player before hanging up his boots to take on managerial responsibilities. He was in the star-studded AC Milan side, that included Gullit and Van Basten, which won the European Cup in consecutive years (1989 & 1990).
Unlike Guardiola, it wasn’t a meteoric rise to managerial stardom for Ancelotti. He began his coaching career with Serie B side Reggiana in 1995 and would manage at Parma and Juventus before arriving back at the San Siro with AC Milan in 2001. He soon rediscovered his touch at his old stomping ground and the good times began to roll for ‘Carletto’. In the 2002-03 season Ancelotti clinched his first Champions League title as manager. AC Milan claiming a nerve-jangling victory on penalties in an all-Italian Final with Carlo’s former club Juventus. He didn’t let the shock comeback defeat against Liverpool in the 2005 Final ruffle his feathers too much as two years later in 2007, Ancelotti’s AC Milan gained revenge with a 2-1 success over the Mersey Reds in Athens.
Don Carlo Reigns In Spain
Despite winning trophies during spells with Chelsea and PSG in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Ancelotti had to wait until his time with Real Madrid for the European magic to happen again. Two years prior to Zinedine Zidane’s inaugural Champions League success as manager with Los Blancos, Ancelotti helped guide the Madrid giants to a convincing 4-1 victory over their city rivals, Atletico in Portugal (2014).
Ancelotti returned for his second spell in the Real Madrid hotseat at the start of the 2021/22 season and claimed a record-breaking 4th European Cup as manager in that very first term back in the Spanish capital. He also clinched his first ever La Liga title that season to add further glories to his glossy CV. Now Carlo looks to extend his record at Wembley this Saturday. Will it be a fantastic fifth for Ancelotti or can Terzic triumph in his very first European Final?
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