The best managers in football win trophies, while others can often struggle to do so. Regardless, a look into the most successful managers throws up some interesting names and provides us with a chance to dive into areas of football history that some people may not be aware of.

Some of the managers on this list earned their trophies in the west, right in the eyes of the media, meaning they have a lasting legacy that most people are aware of. Some of them earned their trophies behind the iron curtain, which unfortunately means their history can be obscured and almost forgotten about by the average football fan. And others earned theirs in their homelands, rarely moving out of their country, which means the knowledge of their exploits can be limited to fans of their clubs.

It remains unclear for how much longer Pep Guardiola will remain as Manchester City boss, but if he does depart in 2026, he will do so having won a trophy. The 55-year-old won the Carabao Cup against Arsenal, improving his standing among the 10 managers with the most trophies in the history of football.

10

Ottmar Hitzfeld

26 trophies won

Ottmar Hitzfeld spent the entirety of his managerial career in Switzerland and Germany and by the time of his 2014 retirement, he had established himself as one of the game’s greatest-ever managers. He spent eight years in Switzerland, culminating with a three-year stretch in charge of Grasshoppers before he moved to Borussia Dortmund in 1991.

With the Schwarzgelben, Hitzfeld not only won two Bundesliga titles but in 1997, lifted the first of two Champions Leagues he would win as a manager, the first in Dortmund’s history as a club. After tensions between Hitzfeld and the ownership, he departed in 1998, swiftly joining Bayern Munich where he would win four Bundesliga titles, the first three being consecutive, and a Champions League in 2001.

Hitzfeld returned to Bayern Munich in 2007 for a year, having initially departed the club in 2004. After his second stint in Bavaria, the manager became boss of the Swiss national team, a position he would hold until his retirement in 2014.

9

Jock Stein

26 trophies won

Scottish manager Jock Stein began his coaching career with Celtic‘s reserve side, where young players such as Billy McNeil, Bobby Murdoch, and John Clark would pass through into the first team before becoming homegrown heroes within the first team. He actually won his first competition whilst managing the reserves, beating Rangers 8-2 on aggregate in the reserves cup, though of course that isn’t counted here.

Stein moved to Dunfermline in 1960 and enjoyed a solid four-year stint at the club, ending his time there with a Scottish Cup and multiple excursions in Europe. He then moved to Hibernian for a year, leaving for Celtic in March 1965, while also coaching the Scottish national team part-time from May to December of that same year.

Celtic would be where Stein won all but one of his trophies. He had a noticeable impact on the fortunes and performances of Dunfermline and Hibs, but the power of Celtic and the coaching abilities of Stein became a force to be reckoned with in Scottish and European football. Their first trophy was the 1965 Scottish Cup, which they won against Dunfermline (who had beaten Hibs in the other semi-final). More trophies followed in the next season, but in 1966-67 they won a continental treble, the first British team to do so.

Stein’s Celtic would win 10 league titles, with nine of those all in succession. They would also win eight Scottish cups, six Scottish league cups, and a European Cup.

8

Luis Felipe Scolari

26 trophies won

‘Big Phil’ Scolari is certainly someone that you can describe as well travelled. He began his early career in Brazil, though a short stint in Saudi Arabia was sandwiched in between, eventually winning his first trophy in 1987 with Gremio. The Campeanato Gaucho is the state football league of Rio Grande do Sul, and he won that on three occasions.

He then moved to Kuwait, winning the Kuwait Emir Cup with Al-Qadisiya before returning to Brazil. After a bizarre incident where he abandoned Cortiba after three losses by boarding the winning team’s bus after the third defeat, he then made his return to Gremio, winning more state championships, a national title, a Brazilian cup, and a Copa Libertadores. His times at Palemeiras in the late-90s and late 2010s yielded more silverware. He also won the Uzbek league in 2009 with Bunyodkor, and achieved great success over a three-year period with Chinese Super League club, Gangzhou Evergrande.

He is perhaps best known by most football fans for his time as Chelsea boss and as the manager of Brazil and Portugal. Taking over in 2001 with the Selecao in danger of potentially not qualifying for the World Cup, he guided them to qualification and to the World Cup final where they beat Germany 2-0 with two goals from Ronaldo. His time as Portugal manager saw them reach the final of Euro 2004 and the semi-final of the 2006 but it yielded no trophies. His return to Brazil in 2012 saw them win the Confederations Cup in 2013 ahead of their home World Cup in 2014. He resigned after two losses in the latter stages of that World Cup.

7

Jose Mourinho

26 trophies won

The Special One, Jose Mourinho, has enjoyed one of the finest careers of any modern manager, experiencing success at practically every club he has taken over. Beginning as an assistant coach under Sir Bobby Robson at numerous clubs, he got his big break at Benfica and Uniao de Leiria. He then moved to Porto, where his legacy truly began. He instantly turned the club’s fortunes around, winning a European treble in his first full season at the club. The 2003-04 season is the stuff of legend as he would guide Porto to a miraculous Champions League triumph.

He then took charge of Chelsea, who had become big spenders under Roman Abramovich. His first season in charge of the club yielded a League Cup and Premier League title, which was won with the most points recorded at that point (95), and the least amount of goals conceded (15). After more triumphs in the blue area of London, as he moved onto Inter Milan in 2008, where he won a Serie A title in 2009 and a year later he achieved a historic treble.

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His time at Real Madrid was explosive, as he poked Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova in the eye whilst also breaking records with his 2011-12 La Liga title win. After that, he returned to Chelsea, winning another Premier League title and League Cup before an up-and-down stint at Manchester United saw him win three trophies in the 2016-17 season. His time at Spurs saw him win nothing, before he won a Europa Conference League title in 2022 with Roma. He’s won nothing in the years since, having worked at Fenerbahce and now Benfica.

6

Bill Struth

30 trophies won

At nearly 40 years old, Bill Struth was appointed assistant manager at Rangers in 1914, a position he would hold for six years. After long-serving manager William Wilton died in 1920, Struth was chosen to be his successor and would go on to serve 34 years as Rangers manager, guiding them through one of the most successful periods in their history.

Struth won 30 trophies at Ibrox, including 18 Scottish Premiership titles and 10 Scottish Cups. Struth was known for being a strict figure, insistent on discipline from his players. It was a method that clearly worked well for the man who retired after over three decades of service in 1954.

5

Carlo Ancelotti

30 trophies won

Carlo Ancelotti has been on the management scene since 1995 and the iconic Italian doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon, almost three decades later. The 64-year-old has scooped silverware in each of the top five European leagues – La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Premier League and Ligue 1, which goes to show how much of a serial winner the current Real Madrid boss has been.

He’s also one of few men to have won the Champions League as both a player and a manager, doing so five times while sitting in the dugout. Two of these triumphs came for AC Milan, where Ancelotti is still heralded as a hero as the last man to have brought the biggest European trophy on offer to the Rossoneri. The other three came across two separate spells with Los Blancos, his latest coming in a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund with the Spanish side.

During his first foray into English football, Ancelotti nearly secured all domestic trophies on offer as he kicked off his spell at Chelsea with a Community Shield success before following it up with a Premier League and FA Cup double. His other league victories came with Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in Germany and France respectively. His 28th trophy came when he guided Real Madrid to Spanish glory in the 2023/24 season, wresting the title back from Barcelona. Now in charge of Brazil, he’ll aim to win what would arguably be the biggest trophy of his career this summer at the 2026 World Cup.

4

Valeriy Lobanovskyi

30 trophies won

Valeriy Lobanovskyi did most of his work behind the Iron Curtain of the Warsaw Pact in the 1970s and 1980s as the manager of Dynamo Kyiv, one of the most successful clubs in the history of the Soviet Union.

Soviet football is rather interesting but not much is really known about it in the western world. It was innovative in its own way, with Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kyiv working with the Kyiv State Institute of Physical Education to bring a system of calculation to his team in order to manage the workload of his team. Additionally, he also developed a style of play somewhat similar to Rinus Michels total football, but with more of an emphasis on pressing.

Under his guidance Dynamo Kyiv won eight Soviet Top League titles and six Soviet Cups. Dynamo also had success on the continental stage, winning the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup twice, and the European Super Cup over Bayern Munich.

Lobanovskyi was also the manager of the Soviet Union national team, coming close to a trophy in 1988 when they reached the final of the European Championship. However, that iconic Marco van Basten goal for the Netherlands put pay to any dreams of victory. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lobanovskyi turned Dynamo into the dominant team in Ukraine, winning five National League titles in a row, and three Ukrainian Cups on the spin too.

3

Mircea Lucescu

38 trophies won

A real journeyman manager, Lucescu has won trophies in Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and Italy. Another from behind the Iron Curtain, Lucescu began his managerial career in his native Romania, winning two Romanian Cups and a league title with Dinamo Bucaresti.

After the 1989 revolution, Lucescu left Romania to join Pisa in Italy. His time at Brescia was more innovative, as he and fitness coach Adriano Bacconi created a software programme called FARM (Football Athletics Results Manager), which was one of the first data monitoring systems in football. At Brescia, he also won the 1993-94 Anglo-Italian Cup.

His most successful time at any football club was his tenure in charge of Shakhtar Donetsk, where he turned them into one of the greatest Ukrainian teams of all time. They became the dominant team in Ukraine, winning eight Ukrainian Premier League titles, six Ukrainian Cups, and seven Ukrainian Super Cups. Furthermore, they also experienced success on the continental stage, winning the 2009 UEFA Cup over German team Werder Bremen.

His time with Zenit St. Petersburg saw him win a Russian Cup before an ill-fated period as the manager of Turkey yielded no success. He returned to Ukraine to manage Shakhtar’s biggest rivals, Dynamo Kyiv, winning a domestic treble in his first season in charge. He retired from management in November 2023.

2

Pep Guardiola

40 trophies won

Perhaps the greatest manager of all time? If he isn’t already, then he is certainly on his way to being the greatest in terms of his trophy haul. 38 trophies when he presumably isn’t even close to retiring is absolutely incredible. At the age of 53, Pep has more than enough time to catch up with the man who is first on this list.

It’s a testament to how good a coach he was even at the start of his career, that he was given the reigns of the Barcelona first team after just one year with the B team. He repaid that faith instantaneously, winning a treble in his first year in charge and completing the first sextuple in the history of football by the end of 2009. By the end of his time at Barcelona, he had won 14 trophies, which made him the most successful manager in the club’s history, despite his tenure at the club only lasting four years.

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His move to Bayern bore fruit as he returned to winning ways after his year-long sabbatical. He quickly won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal but it was at the German side that his search for a third Champions League win would begin to haunt him as the Bavarian club would fall at the semi-final stage in each of his three seasons in charge.

His switch to Manchester City only furthered his legacy in football, however, as his Citizens have come to be the dominant club within English football over the past eight years. They have won six Premier League titles, five League Cups, two FA Cups, two FA Community shields and ended Pep’s search for that third Champions League trophy when they beat Inter Milan in Istanbul in 2023. His most recent triumph, the 2026 League Cup, means he has won the competition more times than any other manager.

1

Sir Alex Ferguson

49 trophies won

The arguments about who is the greatest manager of all time will probably last until the end of time. But Sir Alex Ferguson‘s case cannot be denied as the number of trophies he has won for his teams is quite frankly incredible.

He began his extensive trophy haul with St. Mirren, winning the first division title (though this was the second tier) in 1977. He became the manager of Aberdeen in 1978, winning the Scottish Premier Division title in his second season. He would go on to win two more league titles and four Scottish Cups during his time at the club. His most famous triumph was the Dons’ victory against Real Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup.

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He would move to Manchester United in 1986, and his legacy at the Red Devils would become the stuff of absolute legend. It is well known that the club was somewhat unsuccessful in his first few years at the club, but from 1990 until 2013 they won 38 trophies, an average of nearly two trophies every season.

The club dominated the first two and a half decades of the Premier League and added numerous FA Cup, League Cup, and Community Shield victories to their cabinet. They were successful in Europe, winning two Champions League titles with their triumph in 1999 a part of the club’s famous treble. Additionally, on two occasions, the club became World Champions, winning the Intercontinental Cup in 1999 and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2008.

Sir Alex Ferguson turned Manchester United into the biggest club in the world at their peak, and his legacy will live on forever.