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Up-and-coming coaches
Antonio Conte, Zinedine Zidane, Thomas Tuchel, Max Allegri, Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone could all be on the market this summer, but any ambitious European clubs looking for a new manager shouldn’t limit their search to the obvious names.
In this slideshow, we pick out 10 of the best up-and-coming coaches on the continent who you probably haven’t heard of…
Miguel Cardoso (Rio Ave)
Cardoso is yet another name on the seemingly endless list of Portuguese coaches who have never played professionally themselves. Having served as an assistant at numerous clubs, he made a name for himself in rather unusual fashion by moving to the youth team of Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013. Cardoso worked as No.2 to Paulo Fonseca last season, before returning to his homeland in 2017.
The 45-year-old has made a huge impression at Rio Ave in his first season as the main man, with his possession-based style helping the club climb to the dizzy heights of fifth in the Primeira Liga.
Adi Hutter (Young Boys)
The only top Austrian footballer born after the Second World War to be named Adolf, Hutter may not be entirely pleased with his parents, and prefers the shorter version 'Adi'. He’s made a lot of headlines for the right reasons, however – first on the pitch and now on the touchline.
Young Boys haven't won the title since 1986, but they’re on the verge of breaking the curse at the expense of favourites Basel. Hutter has been in charge at Young Boys since 2015 and has made revolutionary changes to the club's vision; he should get a chance in the Bundesliga soon.
Ivan Leko (Brugge)
Many Brugge fans were disappointed when Leko was appointed coach last summer. Granted, the Croatian used to play for the club, but his inexperience counted against him. Now, though, that view has changed.
Brugge have flourished with the 40-year-old in the dugout, playing the best football in Belgium and getting phenomenal results to challenge at the top of the table. Leko is tactically flexible and a terrific motivator, proving himself as an ambitious coach with boundless self-belief. Winning the league title in his debut season would be a magnificent achievement.
Pablo Machin (Girona)
Having saved Girona from relegation to the third division in 2014, Machin has made revolutionary changes at the modest club and installed an entertaining style of play at Estadi Montilivi.
Girona may have failed in the 2015 and 2016 play-offs, but they were finally promoted to La Liga for the first time in their history last summer. The Catalans are now enjoying a superb debut season sitting proudly in the top half of the table, for which Machin – still only 43 – deserves great credit. The cooperation between Girona and Manchester City certainly won’t do his career prospects any harm.
Christophe Pelissier (Amiens)
In 2014 Pelissier achieved the extraordinary by leading Luzenac, a club from a village of 500 people, to Ligue 2 – only to see his dream destroyed by the FA, who refused to allow the minnows to become professional because of stadium issues.
Heartbroken but not beaten, Pelissier moved to Amiens and led them to successive promotions. The northern club were virtually unknown at the time, but they’re now playing positive football in Ligue 1 and look set to survive against the odds. A bigger job surely awaits.
Florian Kohfeldt (Werder Bremen)
Werder were considered relegation candidates at the start of the season, and supporters were pessimistic in the extreme when Kohfeldt replaced Alexander Nouri as manager in late October.
The 35-year-old has done a tremendous job, however, and Werder have been one of the best teams in the Bundesliga in the second half of the campaign, winning six of their last nine games. Kohfeldt never played professionally, instead drawing his experience from a decade of coaching various youth teams at Bremen.
Luis Pimenta (Brommapojkarna)
Pimenta understood early in his career that he wasn’t good enough on the pitch. He therefore turned his attention to coaching, and during his studies at Liverpool John Moores University the Portuguese made some Norwegian friends – which is what eventually led to him starting his coaching career in Scandinavia.
Kongsvinger, of Norway's second division, took a gamble on him in 2014, and Pimenta repaid the club’s faith by taking them to the verge of promotion plus – even more sensationally – a place in the cup final. At the start of 2018, the 36-year-old took another interesting challenge at newly promoted Swedish outfit Brommapojkarna.
Sergei Semak (Ufa)
During his playing career, Semak was one of the most respected players in Russia – a natural leader who captained the national team to the semi-finals of Euro 2008. Today, the man who won five league titles with CSKA Moscow, Rubin Kazan and Zenit is making a name for himself as a coach.
Semak worked alongside Luciano Spalletti, Andre Villas-Boas and Mircea Lucescu at Zenit, before taking the reins at tiny Russian side Ufa in 2017. Results have been outstanding, with the low-budget outfit successfully avoiding a relegation battle.
Domenico Tedesco (Schalke)
Schalke sporting director Christian Heidel regularly gives chances to unknown young coaches, having promoted both Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel while at Mainz. Appointing Tedesco last summer was his biggest risk yet, though, and it’s paid off handsomely – the Royal Blues are on the verge of qualifying for the Champions League and could finish as Bundesliga runners-up behind perennial champions Bayern Munich.
The Italy-born Tedesco, who never played professionally, obviously knows his was round a half-time team-talk: 4-0 down to Borussia Dortmund at the turnaround in last November's Revierderby, Schalke came back to draw 4-4. Tedesco has a BA in business engineering and previously worked for Mercedes - but his degree likely won't be needed again in this astonishing career of his.
Erik ten Hag (Ajax)
Ten Hag is the most original and unorthodox of all Dutch coaches; his ideas are a mixture of different philosophies. Formerly a tough defender at Twente, the 48-year-old served as assistant to Fred Rutten at PSV, then led Go Ahead Eagles to promotion and moved on to Bayern Munich's reserves. That's where he met Pep Guardiola, while he also impressed then-sporting director Matthias Sammer.
Upon returning to the Netherlands in 2015, Ten Hag implemented some of Guardiola’s principles at Utrecht, leading them through two magnificent seasons which included a KNVB Cup final appearance.
