The best Champions League managers ever

Europe’s premier club competition for well over 60 years, the Champions League (or, as it was until 1992, the European Cup) has provided the stage for some of the game’s finest coaches to prove their mettle amid the highest of stakes.

Glory in this tournament is the pinnacle, and all of the names you’re about to see have reached it on multiple occasions.

From the 1950s right up to the present day, we take you through the greatest Champions League managers ever.

While he was born in Dortmund, Dettmar Cramer won all three of his trophies in club management with Bayern Munich.

Having succeeded Udo Lattek as boss, Cramer delivered Bayern’s second and third successive European Cup triumphs with victory over Leeds in 1975 and Saint-Etienne in 1976 – as well as lifting the 1976 Intercontinental Cup.

A World Cup and European Championship winner with West Germany as a player, Jupp Heynckes carved out a similarly successful managerial career which yielded two Champions League victories.

They came 15 years apart: with Real Madrid in 1998 and Bayern Munich in 2013, the latter making up part of a treble.

Iconic German gaffer Ottmar Hitzfeld belongs to an elite group of managers to have won the Champions League / European Cup with multiple clubs.

He claimed his first continental success with Borussia Dortmund in 1997, as the Black and Yellows claimed their maiden Champions League crown at the home of arch-rivals Bayern Munich – who Hitzfeld led to the same honour four years later, having been on the wrong end of Manchester United’s famous 1999 comeback.

Jose ‘Pepe’ Villalonga was the man who started it all, Real Madrid’s first European Cup-winning manager.

Later a Cup Winners’ Cup winner with Atletico Madrid and a European Championship winner with the Spanish national team, Villalonga oversaw Real’s historic 4-3 triumph over Reims in the inaugural European Cup final of 1956 – before retaining the trophy at the Bernabeu the following year, as Real defeated Fiorentina 2-0.

The great Stefan Kovacs managed teams to major trophy success in his native Romania, Greece and the Netherlands – and he achieved the most in the latter, with Ajax.

Similarly to the aforementioned Dettmar Cramer, Kovacs took over from a European Cup-winning boss; he then steered the Dutch giants to two more continental crowns in succession, as Johan Cruyff et al saw off Inter in 1972 – Cruyff himself bagging both goals – and Juventus in 1973.

An itinerant manager who enjoyed success in Europe and South America, Hungary’s Bela Guttmann guided Benfica to back-to-back European Cup victories in 1961 and 1962 – with his side beating Barcelona 3-2 then Real Madrid 5-3.

Number three never happened… After the 1962 final, Guttmann left Benfica having been denied a pay rise – and not only that, he also allegedly cursed the club, exclaiming: “Not in a hundred years from now will Benfica ever be European champions again.”

At the time of writing, only 62 years have passed – but they haven’t been…

Sir Alex Ferguson’s two Champions League triumphs at Manchester United both came in dramatic fashion.

Nothing could top the treble-clinching stoppage-time turnaround against Bayern Munich in the final of 1999 – as Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Barcelona – but winning an epic penalty shootout in 2008’s all-English final against Chelsea was thrilling in its own right.

There haven’t been many underdog winners in the history of the Champions League, but Jose Mourinho masterminded something of an upset with Porto – who made light work of Monaco in the 2004 final, winning 3-0, having knocked out Manchester United en route.

The Special One got his hands on the trophy for the second time in 2010, when he led Inter to their first-ever treble via a 2-0 triumph against Bayern Munich.

Brian Clough took the reins at Second Division Nottingham Forest in 1976. Two years later, they were champions of England; 12 months after that, they were champions of Europe.

As if he hadn’t overseen a remarkable enough rise already, Clough retained the European Cup with Forest – who remain the only club to have been European champions more times than domestic champions.

Without doubt one of the greatest managers ever to tread the touchline, Helenio Herrera coached the Grande Inter side who have rightly gone down in history among the finest 11s ever assembled.

Employing the notoriously stingy Catenaccio defensive system, the iconic Argentine led Inter to back-to-back European Cup and Intercontinental Cup wins in 1964 and 1965.

Arrigo Sacchi masterminded consecutive European Cup triumphs with Milan in 1989 and 1990, as his all-time great team thrashed Steaua Bucharest 4-0 then dispatched Benfica 1-0.

The master Italian tactician achieved such dominance with the Rossoneri through his impeccably well-structured approach which brought intense high pressing to the forefront of the European game.

Another giant of the dugout, Ernst Happel finished third at the 1954 World Cup while playing for Austria. He went on to reach three European Cup finals as a manager – winning two of them.

Happel’s first success came in charge of Feyenoord in 1970, as the Dutch outfit fought back to beat Celtic in the final; he collected his second winner’s medal 13 years later, guiding Hamburg to a 1-0 victory over Juventus.

Bob Paisley succeeded Bill Shankly as Liverpool boss in 1974, and he built splendidly on his predecessor’s immensely successful and transformative Anfield tenure.

Paisley became the first manager to get his hands on the European Cup three times, delivering glory for the Reds in 1977, 1978 and 1981 – with final triumphs over Borussia Monchengladbach, Club Brugge and Real Madrid.

As a Real Madrid player, Zinedine Zidane scored arguably the best goal in Champions League / European Cup final history: that volley against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park in 2002.

As Real Madrid manager, the 1998 Ballon d’Or winner became the first coach to lift the Champions League trophy three years running – doing so between 2016 and 2018 with victories over Atletico in an all-Madrid final, Juventus and Liverpool.

Surely the greatest manager of the 21st century, Pep Guardiola has surprised absolutely no one by winning the Champions League on multiple occasions.

The meticulous Catalan genius did it as part of a treble with Barcelona and Manchester City, with his inimitably great Barca side reaching their possession-monopolising peak in beating Manchester United 3-1 in the 2011 final at Wembley.

At the time of writing, Carlo Ancelotti had won the Champions League no fewer than five times – with two clubs.

Don Carlo claimed European club football’s ultimate honour for the first time in 2003, as his Milan side defeated Juventus on penalties in the first all-Italian final – before adding a second crown with victory over Liverpool in 2007.

Seven years passed before Ancelotti got his hands on that famous old trophy again – this time with Real Madrid, who thumped local rivals Atletico 4-1 in the final.