Ranking the best European trophy-winning managers

May 20, 2026 No Comments

Ranking the best European trophy-winning managersByAlex BysouthBBC Sport Senior JournalistPublished10 minutes agoThere is nothing Unai Emery loves more than a Europa League final.The Basque coach already holds the record for winning the competition more than any other manager, notching three on the bounce with Sevilla between 2014 and 2016, before adding another with Villarreal in 2021.On Wednesday, the 54-year-old has the chance to extend that record to five, when Aston Villa face Freiburg in the final in Istanbul (20:00 BST).

But how does he stack up against the best European trophy-winning bosses of all time? I’ve attempted to rank the top 10 below – you can have your say, too.

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A quick nod to some of those who do not make the list. Udo Lattek won all three European trophies with different clubs – a European Cup at Bayern Munich, Uefa Cup with Borussia Monchengladbach and Cup Winners’ Cup with Barcelona.

Sven-Goran Eriksson led Gothenburg to a Uefa Cup, won a Cup Winners’ Cup with Lazio and lost European and Uefa Cup finals with Benfica.

Raymond Goethals lifted the Champions League with Marseille in 1993, having lost the final two years earlier, and led Anderlecht to Cup Winners’ Cup success in 1978 a year after finishing runners-up to Hamburg. He also lost a final with Standard Liege.

Then there’s Jurgen Klopp, Champions League winner in 2019 and three-time runner-up. And, of course, heavy-hitting omissions in Brian Clough, who clinched successive European Cups with Nottingham Forest, and Celtic great Jock Stein, the first British manager to win the continent’s top trophy and beaten finalist in 1970.

But on to those who made it…

10. Unai Emery

Of course, European Cup and Champions League titles carry more weight here than second-tier European competitions, but that is not to diminish those achievements.

Emery thrives in the Europa League environment. The only other trophies of his managerial career have come at Paris St-Germain where, despite domestic dominance, the iconic moment of his tenure was a dramatic collapse at Barcelona in the Champions League last 16.

Wednesday will be his sixth final, losing the 2019 edition as Arsenal boss, and that is enough to sneak him in at number 10.

9. Johan Cruyff

It is hard to quantify Johan Cruyff’s achievements as a manager through trophies – his real legacy is in the foundations laid at Ajax and Barcelona and the crop of managers who have followed the Dutchman’s innovative ideas and philosophies.

But in his fairly short managerial career, Cruyff pioneered success. He guided a young and exciting Ajax side to Cup Winners’ Cup glory in 1987, Marco van Basten scoring the winner against Lokomotive Leipzig in Athens, and then turned a turbulent Barcelona era into another Cup Winners’ Cup crown.

The culmination of Cruyff’s work, though, came in 1992 when Barcelona’s ‘Dream Team’ won the European Cup for the first time in the club’s history.

Ronald Koeman’s extra-time winner carried huge significance, not just in making Barcelona European champions for the first time, but in marking the start of the Catalan giants’ unprecedented success since.

8. Giovanni Trapattoni

Giovanni Trapattoni won two European Cups as a player with AC Milan before hanging up his boots and guiding the Rossoneri to the brink of more continental success as caretaker boss.

Milan were beaten in the 1974 Cup Winners’ Cup final by Magdeburg but that would by no means be the end of Trapattoni’s European destiny – albeit in rival colours.

The Italian won every European trophy going during two spells at Juventus – a European Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and two Uefa Cups, plus another during a sabbatical at Inter.

His subsequent journeying around Europe yielded domestic trophies, but no more on the continent for a man who finished his varied career as Vatican City boss.

7. Nereo Rocco

Trapattoni was part of the first AC Milan side to win the European Cup in 1963 under the guidance of boss Nereo Rocco, a purveyor of Catenaccio – a system built around a type of sweeper, known as a libero and, in Rocco’s case, swift attacking breaks.

A physical and pragmatic Milan stopped the great Benfica side of Eusebio clinching three in a row to win their first continental crown, before adding another in 1969 by thrashing Cruyff’s Ajax 4-1 in Madrid.

It may have been more had Rocco and Milan not been competing with Helenio Herrera’s Inter, who won successive European titles after their rivals’ first.

But Milan’s longest-serving and most successful coach, known for being charismatic and socialising with players and journalists, added to their continental glory with Cup Winners’ Cups in 1968 and 1973.

6. Pep Guardiola, and 5. Sir Alex Ferguson

This is an argument-starter. Your opinion probably depends on if your bedroom wallpaper was red or blue growing up – is Sir Alex Ferguson or Pep Guardiola the most successful European boss?

Guardiola has three Champions Leagues to Ferguson’s two. The Catalan boss won his with a Barcelona side that can lay claim to being one of the best ever, and a Manchester City team who have dominated English football over the past decade – both enhanced by his genius.

Manchester United, meanwhile, were top dogs in the Premier League during Ferguson’s tenure but clinched that first Champions League crown in the most dramatic of circumstances – Sheringham, Solskjaer and all that – and then pipped a lavishly assembled Chelsea in 2008.

Tipping the balance in Ferguson’s favour, though, are those Cup Winners’ Cup triumphs – the 1991 win against Barcelona set the foundations for Ferguson’s Old Trafford future, the one with Aberdeen in 1983 put him on the managerial map, knocking out Bayern Munich and then stunning Alfredo di Stefano’s Real Madrid in Gothenburg.

4. Jose Mourinho

Now then – the Special One. Talking of shocks, Porto’s Champions League triumph in 2004 was probably the last great underdog victory in Europe’s showpiece competition. Jose Mourinho’s talented side had won the Uefa Cup the previous year, too.

That earned the knee-sliding enigma a big-money move to Stamford Bridge, but for all his domestic success Mourinho would have to wait until his Inter Milan days for another Champions League crown.

Mourinho registered epic wins over his former clubs Chelsea and Barcelona – where the Portuguese was assistant to Sir Bobby Robson for the 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup success – before Inter beat Bayern Munich in the final to clinch a treble.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his next move was Real Madrid, Mourinho has not won the Champions League since. But there has been other continental success – a Europa League at Manchester United and Conference League with Roma to complete the set.

3. Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane made this management lark look easy. In his first two and a half seasons at Real Madrid, the Frenchman won three successive Champions Leagues.

It made him the first person since Miguel Munoz – who deserves a mention – to become European champion as a player and a coach with the Spanish giants.

Zizou was of course blessed with Galactico-esque individual talent in his side, but that is never a guarantee of success – by the time he returned for a second spell in March 2019, Madrid were already out of the Champions League.

He exited in the following seasons to Manchester City and Chelsea.

But in 53 games managed in the competition, Zidane has more Champions League titles than most coaches dream of, winning it in three out of five attempts.

Real Madrid players throw Zinedine Zidane in the air

2. Bob Paisley

Bill Shankly was an almost impossible figure to follow at Anfield. But somehow Bob Paisley – a Liverpool player, then physio, then Shankly’s right-hand man and eventually his successor – managed to bring unprecedented success to the club.

The County Durham-born boss forged Liverpool into a dominant force in England and Europe – winning the Uefa Cup in 1976 before a first European Cup in the club’s history the following season.

Paisley’s side defended that crown at Wembley in 1978, Kenny Dalglish scoring the winner, and – after Clough’s Nottingham Forest clinched two on the bounce – he became the first manager in history to win three European Cups.

He would hold the honour of being the only coach to achieve such a feat until – spoiler alert – Carlo Ancelotti matched his success in 2014.

Paisley retired from the Anfield dugout in 1983, so could probably lay a claim to Liverpool’s fourth European crown – under Joe Fagan – the following season, too.

Real Madrid players throw Carlo Ancelotti in the air

1. Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti – the Champions League Don. Not only was he European champion twice as a player with AC Milan, the Italian has since surpassed that in the dugout with five titles to his name.

His first two came in red and black, winning the competition with a vintage AC Milan team in 2003 and 2007, either side of that dramatic collapse from 3-0 up against Liverpool in 2005.

But perhaps one of the most impressive parts of Ancelotti’s achievement is winning the Champions League across several eras – his victories coming in three different decades.

Three of those were as manager of Real Madrid. Surprisingly, though, after beating rivals Atletico in 2014, the Italian had spells at Bayern Munich, Napoli and Everton before returning to the Bernabeu to enjoy more European glory in 2022 and 2024. Bellissimo.

What information do we collect from this quiz?

Ranking the best European trophy-winning managers

10. Unai Emery

9. Johan Cruyff

8. Giovanni Trapattoni

7. Nereo Rocco

6. Pep Guardiola, and 5. Sir Alex Ferguson

4. Jose Mourinho

3. Zinedine Zidane

2. Bob Paisley

1. Carlo Ancelotti

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10. Unai Emery

9. Johan Cruyff

8. Giovanni Trapattoni

7. Nereo Rocco

6. Pep Guardiola, and 5. Sir Alex Ferguson

4. Jose Mourinho

3. Zinedine Zidane

2. Bob Paisley

1. Carlo Ancelotti

Related topics

More on this story

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