Best Managers in Soccer History

In the wake of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s third Premier League title in a row during his march towards a treble of trophies in the 2022/23 season, we’ve put together a list of the best soccer managers of all time.

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Ranking the Best Soccer Managers

5. Bob Paisley

Liverpool’s illustrious history is because of two managers: Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.

However, in only nine years, Paisley won 19 trophies — no manager in English soccer history achieved anywhere near as much in this time period. This record-breaking spell included six league titles, three League Cups, and five Charity Shields. 

Paisley’s greatest achievements came in the European Cup, however, as he guided Liverpool to three European Cup trophies and, at the time, became the only manager to win that competition three times.

In his nine years, Paisley was awarded the Manager of the Year six times, and it’s doubtful we’ll ever see such a dominant period of one manager again.

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4. Jose Mourinho 

Jose Mourinho burst onto the scene as a charismatic young manager who had just guided Porto to winning the Champions League against all the odds. This remains one of the greatest victories of a manager in Champions League history, and Mourinho has since gone on to win league titles in Italy, England and Spain.

He was the only manager to dethrone Guardiola during his spell at Barcelona by collecting a record-breaking 100 points in 2011/12.

Two years before that, Mourinho also became the only manager in history to win the treble with an Italian team after winning the Champions League, Coppa Italia and Serie A with Inter Milan in 2009/10. 

The Portuguese manager also won three Premier League titles with Chelsea, two of which came in back-to-back seasons from 2004-06, and more impressively, after leaving the club for eight years, he came back to win the title in his first season back in 2014.

Although he hasn’t won a league title since, Mourinho has won the Europa Conference League with Roma and collected the Community Shield, League Cup and Europa League with Manchester United.

3. Brian Clough

Only 14 times has the European Cup/Champions League ended up with an English team at the end of the season. Two of those, however, belong to Brian Clough.

He is also one of only four managers to win the English First Division with two different clubs after success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest in the 1970s. Clough also won the League Cup with Forest on four different occasions, but he will always be remembered for his stunning victories in the European Cup.

Clough, against all the odds, guided Forest to consecutive European Cups in the midst of teams like Liverpool and Bayern Munich dominating the competition. This feat in itself puts him as one of the best managers of all time.
 

2. Pep Guardiola

There is more to managing than just being a world-class coach. In truth, there can be very little denying that Guardiola is the best coach of all time for his tactical intuition, his overall genius and how he has changed the game of soccer with his unrivaled knowledge.

Guardiola’s teams are all often regarded as some of the best of all time. His Barcelona squad, which won two Champions League titles and every La Liga trophy between 2008-11, is widely regarded as the best soccer team of all time, and his latest Manchester City squad has become arguably the best English team in history.

Famed for implementing the tika-taka style of play and continuing to develop new tactical outputs, Guardiola has won at least three league titles in three countries (Germany, Spain and England), and he is going for his third Champions League title this season.

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1. Sir Alex Ferguson

Fans will continue to argue about the greatest soccer manager of all time. The recent run Guardiola has been on has edged a lot of fans towards choosing him, but this still cannot look past the incredible managerial success of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.

Mainly remembered for his time at Manchester United, it is easy to forget about the success Ferguson had at Aberdeen. He remains the only manager in the past 40 years to beat the famous Celtic and Rangers to the Scottish league title, and if this wasn’t impressive enough, the Scot is also the only manager in history to defeat the European kings, Real Madrid, in a European final.

After this success, Ferguson moved to Manchester and guided United to 13 Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, four League Cups, one Club World Cup and five FA Cups. What's more, after winning 12 Premier League Manager of the Season awards, it means no manager in English soccer history comes close to the success of the legendary United coach.

What makes Ferguson’s spell at United even more impressive is how he built squads to win titles in three different decades, including the famous Class of 92 that stemmed from building a team to conquer all of Europe with foundations of youth. The Class of 92 would go on to become the first team in English history to win the treble, with six of the players coming through United’s youth system.