Ranked! The 50 best managers in the world
The best managers in the world, from club to country, big clubs to small, and everyone in between
10. Julian Nagelsmann
Dominant in possession and tactically flexible, Nagelsmann’s side did what Tuchel's couldn't and cruised to a Bundesliga title. He's a household name in management in his early 30s – but is he harshly spoken of?
The former Hoffenheim boss has had his critics in Germany but at Bayern Munich, he was mostly just guilty of being his own man – idiosyncratic enough not to immediately bow to the Bavarian way of playing ball. He's still elite tactically, bending his side into back threes, back fours, sometimes with no full-backs and playing some of the most stunning football in the game… and it's since been proven that he wasn't all that bad at the Allianz.
Bayern wanted him back, for a start. It's going to be fascinating seeing him take Germany to a home Euros: he's easily the most exciting coach at the tournament.
9. Diego Simeone
He entered your consciousness when he trapped David Beckham in a web of his own making. He’s played the supervillain ever since. The only man capable of taking down Real Madrid and Barcelona yet without the resources of either… and he's still top 10.
Every season it feels like this might be the one that Diego Simeone runs out of petrol. In the past three years, he’s lost Antoine Griezmann, Diego Godin, Rodri, Juanfran, Lucas Hernandez, Alvaro Morata, Thomas Partey – last-minute, without hope of getting a replacement – and yet Atletico Madrid still had La Liga in 2020/21 on lock from November onwards. Griezmann and Morata have returned – and though Atleti don't strike the fear of god into rivals anymore, they play the numbers game.
Simeone is indestructible, for sure. His 4-4-2 has morphed into a three-at-the-back iteration, as Marcos Llorente and Luis Suarez became the leaders at the heart of Atleti’s last software update. El Cholo crunches the numbers; he knows how many goals to keep out and how many to score to stay ahead of the game – and his team still seem to be punching above their weight. What next? We're not sure. We're pretty sure Simeone will survive the apocalypse, mind.
8. Luis Enrique
He's always seemed friendly enough but Luis Enrique killed the dreams of former employers Barcelona with Ousmane Dembele, like a true pantomime villain. And for his time as Spanish national boss, he showed all the hallmarks of a top club coach: doing very well in league-formatted group stages, implementing perhaps the most cohesive style of play in international football but ultimately being done over by bad luck, Giorgio Chiellini’s mind games and rotten penalty luck.
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PSG is an impossible job – but Luis Enrique’s approach has thus far been intriguing, leaning on teenager Warren Zaire-Emery, implementing a one-fit 4-3-3 and trying to ‘Barca-ise’ this side from a mess of Galacticos into a group defined by their culture. It’s a long slog – but has anyone in recent years been this good at PSG other than Tuchel?
If they go one better than that 2020 side, then… no, perhaps not. Luis Enrique has been a superb fit – and we wait with yet more intrigue as to how he recalibrates this group following Kylian Mbappe's departure in the summer.
7. Simone Inzaghi
Deemed a little too cautious by some naysayers, Inzaghi’s approach to Inter Milan was originally criticised. But given how turbulent the Nerazzurri have been over the last couple years, the Italian has added a stability that few could have imagined.
The rebuild following Conte's (admittedly successful) chaos-ball has been nothing short of spectacular. Inter have been reworked into something that only resembles the old team in formation alone: this is a side that lost stars like Hakimi and Onana only to become stronger for it. Inzaghi's reached a Champions League final, lifted a Scudetto and won widespread acclaim as the next great Italian boss of his generation.
Bigger things beckon – but for now, this is a man who may yet help restore Serie A to its heyday. Inter are slowly growing – a dynasty isn't out of the question – and those who questioned him seem to have piped down.
6. Mikel Arteta
Pep Guardiola didn’t know it, but he was slowly creating a monster. The story is well-known by now: won a trophy early on, dismantled an Arsenal side he played in and then rebuilt it in his image.
When Pep Guardiola smacked him twice en route to a Treble, it looked like there was a ceiling for what Arteta could achieve in the same division as his mentor. Fast-forward 12 months and he's arguably outwitted Guardiola three times this season, taken his young side even closer to the title and built the most tactically, technically impressive team in Europe. Every time they're doubted, they rise higher.
Only Klopp, Mourinho and Conte have really gone toe-to-toe in title races with Pep. Replace Conte with Sir Alex Ferguson in that group as managers who reached 100 wins in the Premier League quicker. This is the company that Arteta keeps these days. Despite what everyone has says, he's more an equal of the elites than he is an apprentice.
5. Unai Emery
When Unai Emery first left England after the Arsenal debacle, it was hard to ever see a way back to the top table for him. Yet he's turned his lowest nadir into the very steel of what he builds his sides around.
In years to come, it may be a toss-up between Villarreal and Aston Villa for his crowning achievement, both midtable sides elevated by his faith in turning forgotten men of bigger sides, workhorses and stardust overlooked by the elite, into a unit stronger than just one big name.
Emery's Yellow Submarine were everything we expected from Arsenal: drilled in two blocks of four, with two superb outlets up top and trickery from the wings. And all from a group of underdogs, too: and now Villa are precisely the same, with Emery bucking the allegations that he can't manage a league campaign alongside European football. It's been a wonderful couple of years for the Basque, with masterclasses along the way – and Villa fans haven’t felt this positive for a generation.
4. Carlo Ancelotti
Such is his lack of ego, Carlo Ancelotti seemingly waltzes into clubs with the best players in the world assembled and asks them how they want to play. The eternal Italian is a by-word for man-management, reshaping his principles depending on the mood in the room – and at 64, he’s showing no signs of losing his touch.
Don Carlo is all about the team: he will do what needs to be done to get the best from the collective and ensures the group are content. But his knack for improving individuals is, by now, legendary. Pirlo, Kaka, Lampard, Bale, James, Vinicius, Benzema and now Bellingham, have all ascended to superstar status under the gaze of his perma-raised eyebrow.
He will go down as one of the greatest of all time – and perhaps the most beloved manager by dressing room vote.
3. Xabi Alonso
Playing for Guardiola, Ancelotti, Mourinho, Benitez and Del Bosque in your career provides you with a solid education to take into the dugout. Xabi Alonso was perhaps the most obvious management candidate from that Spanish golden generation – and boy has he proved it in a short space of time.
Alonso's Leverkusen is one of the most impressive full debut seasons ever seen. He's turned history on its head to deliver a first-ever title – unbeaten, too – at the expense of serial champions, relying on free transfers, overlooked stars and the genius of Florian Wirtz. His 3-4-3 has ripped everyone limb from limb: not even injuries and rotation have stopped them, either.
Tactically, they're top-drawer – and he's instilled a winning mentality to the point where we're into May, and they're yet to lose in any competition. Alonso deserves to called what he is: one of the best in the world at what he does. He may eclipse several of those old masters he played under, if he continues in this vein.
2. Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp leaves Liverpool with “just” a Premier League to show for his time on Merseyside. There will be those who tear apart his legacy and re-evaluate him. It's inevitable that history will not love him as warmly as he was in the moments where the Kop roared.
But the consistent challenge against Manchester City has largely been down to Klopp and no one else: the ability to motivate his squad, in recent times, finding innovative ways to get the best out of Mohamed Salah while developing the talents of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai. Formulating a system to allow Trent Alexander-Arnold more time on the ball has proved a masterstroke, too, while ensuring each member of the squad stays happy and hungry is arguably his greatest asset.
If Guardiola is an alien like Lionel Messi, Klopp is his Cristiano Ronaldo: obviously the second-best, but also, obviously human. That he lived with the Catalan so long is an achievement in itself – and he deserves to be known as an all-time great.
1. Pep Guardiola
Who else?
When Pep Guardiola first arrived on the scene, he was doubted by some; an underdog picked ahead of Jose Mourinho for the biggest job in Catalonia, armed not with experience but philosophy. One of his first big decisions at Camp Nou was to go to war with a board who didn't want a young Lionel Messi to go to the Olympic Games. Pep argued for the good it did him at Barcelona '92 – and sent the Flea to Beijing against his bosses' wishes.
Almost two decades later, no one questions a word he says: football's heartbeat is in time with Josep Guardiola's. The world plays this game in the Catalan's image, aiming to replicate the Juego de Pocision he brought to modern football and subsequently reinvented time and again. But it’s not just the trophies he’s won, the dominance or the thrilling style of play that still makes him the best: it’s that he continues to rework his sides, take principles of old and make them new and unbeatable.
It's in the recruitment, which has rarely misstepped, as Manchester City churn out superstar after superstar. It's in the big-game galaxy brain moments in which he seems able to out-think his opponent. He is always one, two, three steps ahead. He sees football differently to anyone: the Sherlock Holmes of the dugout, spotting devils in details.
He never ages, he never waivers – and he's always right. Messi won gold in 2008, of course. Football, quite simply, belongs to him.
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Prev Page The 50 best managers in the world: 20-11Mark White has been at on FourFourTwo since joining in January 2020, first as a staff writer before becoming content editor in 2023. An encyclopedia of football shirts and boots knowledge – both past and present – Mark has also represented FFT at both FA Cup and League Cup finals (though didn't receive a winners' medal on either occasion) and has written pieces for the mag ranging on subjects from Bobby Robson's season at Barcelona to Robinho's career. He has written cover features for the mag on Mikel Arteta and Martin Odegaard, and is assisted by his cat, Rosie, who has interned for the brand since lockdown.
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