Ranked! The 50 best managers in the world

Best managers in the world
(Image credit: Future)

What does it mean to be one of the world's best managers? Well, Arsene Wenger once claimed, “You are loved when you are born, you are loved when you die… in between, you have to manage.”

In the digital age, respect for managers is about as short as a deep block. This is the era of doom-scrolling, rolling news and sporting soapboxes. Everyone has their opinion and the boss, ultimately, can never appease the entire auditorium. An average tenure of 18 months would explain a lot – it’s usually 18 days before most of you lot have made your mind up on a manager. 

But there are those who have excelled over the past year or so – and we thought we’d rank them. Our list is determined by a few things: ability, of course, as well as how much their team has achieved in these past 12 months – with resources taken into account. Everything considered… these are the most employable men of 2022.

The 50 best managers in the world: October 2022 edition

50. Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate reacts as he leads a training session of the England's football team at the St George's Park stadium in Burton-upon-Trent on May 30, 2022 as part of the team's preparation for the upcoming UEFA Nations League.

Gareth Southgate leads an England training session (Image credit: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

The cliches are bedded in, now: Conor Coady will make every international squad, James Maddison won't and there will be more right-backs in his set-up than you can shake a mucky stick at. Gareth Southgate is pragmatic, cautious and sometimes misses the obvious but just because he sometimes drops the ball, we often forget how good he is.

And that's being the most successful England manager in over half a century – and plenty of tried, plenty with talented players, too. Tactically, Southgate may lack but his man management is exemplary and his in-game nous has taken England to a semi-final and final in the last two tournaments. If England go far in Qatar, his reputation will soar again.

49. Maurizio Sarri

Maurizio Sarri of SS Lazio looks on during the Serie A match between ACF Fiorentina and SS Lazio at Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence, Italy on 10 October 2022

Maurizio Sarri of Lazio looks on during the Serie A match against Fiorentina (Image credit: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Maurizio Sarri almost became a parody of himself in the final days at Juventus. Loved for what he achieved at Napoli and Empoli, he was maligned in Turin and at Chelsea.

Yet he delivered trophies and has only lost once in Lazio's first 10, as the club look to steal a march on the faltering Inter and Juventus. Can Sarriball rise again? Perhaps – it was the most elegant of football when it thrived. 

48. Marco Rose

Marco Rose, head coach of RB Leipzig looks on ahead of the UEFA Champions League group F match between RB Leipzig and Celtic FC at Red Bull Arena on October 05, 2022 in Leipzig, Germany.

Marco Rose, head coach of RB Leipzig looks on ahead of the Champions League match against Celtic (Image credit: Martin Rose/Getty Images)

Your first sacking can make you – that's what Marco Rose is hoping, anyway. 

RB Leipzig suits the former Red Bull Salzburg and Borussia Monchengladbach coach a hell of a lot better. His press is intense and on its day, the diamond midfield that his last two sides operated with looked like a genuinely original solution against the same old 4-3-3s we see across Europe. Rose is bruised and has a lot to prove but the talent is there, for sure. 

47. Jesse Marsch

Jesse Marsch

Jesse Marsch looks on ahead of Brentford's win against Leeds United (Image credit: Getty)

Hiring a potty-mouthed American to replace a club's most beloved coach of a generation – in the midst of a relegation battle during an injury crisis, no less – was a bit of a risk, to say the least.

Somehow, Jesse Marsch has won over Leeds fans, though. The former Red Bull pupil has the high press of Bielsa but has switched to zonal marking fantastically, making Elland Road a formidable place to go and giving the Leeds defence less scrapping around for their lives. Individual talents like Rodrigo, Pascal Struijk, Tyler Adams and Brendan Aaronson have blossomed under his tutelage. He's going places – and slaying the Ted Lasso stereotypes. 

46. Vincenzo Italiano

Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano looks on during the Serie A match against Atalanta BC and ACF Fiorentina at Gewiss Stadium on October 02, 2022 in Bergamo, Italy

Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano looks on during the Serie A match against Fiorentina (Image credit: Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images)

Vincenzo Italiano is exactly the name you'd come up with if asked to invent a football manager from Italy. A shrewd operator who has punched above his weight with Fiorentina, though, Italiano is making a name for himself as one of his nation's best emerging coaches – and could surprise a few in the Europa Conference League.

45. Paulo Fonseca

Lille's coach Paulo Fonseca gestures during the French L1 football match between Lille and Toulouse at Grand Stade Pierre Mauroy stadium in Lille, on September 17, 2022

Lille's coach Paulo Fonseca gestures during the Ligue 1 game against Toulouse (Image credit: DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images)

What a strange couple of years for Lille after winning the title, losing a manager and re-submerging beneath Paris Saint-Germain. It's been an odd time for Paulo Fonseca, too, taking on Roma pre-Jose before turning to French football. His 4-2-3-1 has been resolute, developing the likes of Angel Gomes and supplying the ammunition for Jonathan David: it's exciting to see where Lille may go next. 

44. Giovanni van Bronckhorst

Giovanni van Bronckhorst

Giovanni van Bronckhorst watches Rangers on from the dugout (Image credit: PA)

Giovanni van Bronckhorst has taken Rangers to a major final but it's the misses that illuminate more than the hits. Penalty shootout heartbreak, losses in the Old Firm, losing the grip of the title and perhaps finishing bottom of a Champions League group all look bad. 

GVB hasn't been backed hugely, however, and despite this string of bad luck, he's managed to pull huge results out of the fire in his tenure so far. Give him a full season, a little more money and let's see what he can do: there are good signs. 

43. Lucien Favre

Nice's Swiss head coach Lucien Favre reacts during the French L1 football match between OGC Nice and ES Troyes AC (ESTAC) at the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, south-eastern France, on October 9, 2022.

Swiss coach Lucien Favre reacts during the Ligue 1 match between OGC Nice and Troyes (Image credit: VALERY HACHE/AFP via Getty Images)

This feels like a very different Nice to the one that Lucien Favre left. The Swiss veteran has returned and his reputation as one of the more reliable operators of European football precedes him – the journey should be fascinating this time. 

42. Igor Tudor

Igor Tudor of Olympique Marseille in action during the UEFA Champions League - Group D match between Sporting CP and Olympique Marseille at Estadio Jose Alvalade on October 12, 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Igor Tudor of Olympique Marseille watches on in the Champions League against Sporting (Image credit: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

Marseille finished last season second before Jorge Sampaoli left. Igor Tudor has picked up with a back three and though the two are wildly different coaches, l'OM are looking gritty and rugged, stretching pitches with width and revitalising the now-33 Alexis Sanchez. 

No one expected too much from Marseille – and that's just how they like it, out to ruin anyone's day. Tudor was a revelation in Verona and his approach to Marseille has been fascinating. 

41. Roberto De Zerbi

Roberto De Zerbi, Manager of Brighton & Hove Albion applauds fans after the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Brentford Community Stadium on October 14, 2022 in Brentford, England.

Roberto De Zerbi applauds the Brighton & Hove Albion fans after the game against Brentford (Image credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Roberto De Zerbi’s Sassuolo side were wonderful. They attacked with numbers, cut in to create chances and were resilient in their back four. But perhaps the most promising thing for Brighton is that this young coach seems to get the best out of everyone that he works with. 

The goatee’d genius elevated the likes of Jeremie Boga and Manuel Locatelli in Italy into the kinds of players that we’ve always expected them to be, while playing an entertaining brand of football – and while Shakhtar was a different kind of challenge, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Lassina Traore were both flourishing under him. The next Graham Potter? Don't put it past him. 

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Mark White
Content Editor

Mark 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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