Winners of major trophies as a player and manager

To some in football, it seems that winning major trophies just comes naturally.

The names you're about to see all won top honours during their playing and managerial careers, with a select few doing so at club and international level.

From FA Cup-winning underdogs to multiple world champions, we take a look at those who got their hands on significant silverware both on the pitch and while giving instructions to those on it...

As a player, Bobby Gould won the 1974/75 FA Cup with West Ham, collecting a winner’s medal as an unused substitute in the final against Fulham.

Thirteen years later, he masterminded one of the great FA Cup shocks, managing Wimbledon’s ‘Crazy Gang’ to their famous 1-0 victory over huge favourites Liverpool at Wembley.

One of the finest midfielders of the 80s, Jean Tigana starred in France’s first major triumph: European Championship glory on home soil in 1984.

Also a multiple French top-flight title winner with both Bordeaux and Marseille as a player, Tigana did likewise as manager of Monaco during the 1996/97 season.

It wasn’t that long ago that Xavi was still sweeping up silverware as a player – and he got his hands on all of the game’s biggest honours, including the World Cup and two Euros with Spain, and four Champions Leagues at Barcelona.

After hanging up his boots in 2019, he cut his teeth in management with Qatari outfit Al Sadd – before taking the reins at Barca in 2021 and guiding his boyhood club to the 2022/23 LaLiga title.

Another manager who it seems like was playing just yesterday, Mikel Arteta took over as Arsenal boss three years after retiring there as a player – after of a spell in which he captained the Gunners to successive FA Cup triumphs.

It didn’t take the former midfielder long to win his first one as a coach, either: he steered the North Londoners to success in 2019/20, just six months after being appointed.

A major trophy winner for club and country as a player, Ruud Gullit scored as captain in the Netherlands’ Euro 1988 final victory over the Soviet Union, and found the net in Milan’s 1989 European Cup final triumph against Steaua Bucharest.

Also a multiple Serie A champion with Milan, and an Eredivisie winner with Feyenoord and PSV, Gullit led Chelsea to 1996/97 FA Cup glory as player-manager (although he didn’t take to the pitch in that final), becoming the first foreign coach to lift major silverware in England.

Among the best midfielders of the 80s, Bernd Schuster enjoyed great success with Barcelona, Real Madrid and West Germany – winning the LaLiga title, Cup Winners’ Cup and European Championship, among other honours.

As a manager, ‘the Blond Angel’ led Getafe to the 2006/07 Copa del Rey final – before leaving for Real and steering his old club to the following season’s LaLiga title.

One of Argentina’s standout players of the 90s, Diego Simeone won league titles in Spain and Italy with Atletico Madrid and Lazio respectively – plus the 1997/98 UEFA Cup with Inter and two Copa America crowns with his country.

Having managed in his homeland and Italy, Simeone returned to Atleti in 2011 and steered them to two LaLiga titles and two Europa League triumphs within a decade – largely through very defensive but highly effective football.

Among the most popular figures in the history of English football, Terry Venables the player – a midfielder, to be precise – won the League Cup with Chelsea in 1965 and the FA Cup with Tottenham two years later.

After winning lower-league titles as a manager with two more London clubs, Crystal Palace and QPR, Venables headed to Barcelona and led them to 1984/85 LaLiga glory – earning the famous nickname which would stick for the rest of his life, ‘El Tel’. His final trophy was the 1990/91 FA Cup as Spurs boss.

Leeds manager during the most successful period in the Yorkshire club’s history, Don Revie guided the Whites (with whom he had ended his playing career) to two First Division titles, an FA Cup and a League Cup – as well as two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups.

As a player, the six-cap England forward helped Manchester City to victory in the 1955/56 FA Cup.

Martin O’Neill produced an iconic punditry moment when he teased World Cup winners Fabio Cannavaro and Patrick Vieira about their lack of a Champions League winner’s medal. The Northern Irishman has two to his name, starring as Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest claimed successive European Cups in 1979 and 1980.

O’Neill’s first managerial success came at Wycombe Wanderers – who he led to the Football League for the first time in their history in 1993 – and he went on to win two League Cups with Leicester.

A star man for the Netherlands en route to victory at Euro 1988, the superb Frank Rijkaard also won a heap of silverware at Ajax and Milan – including the Champions League / European Cup with both clubs.

He repeated the latter feat during his longest managerial stint at one club: Barcelona, in 2005/06, also leading the Catalan giants to back-to-back LaLiga titles.

Liverpool’s greatest player of all time, Kenny Dalglish played an instrumental role in the Reds’ most glorious era – helping them to six First Division titles and three European Cups, among numerous other honours.

The legendary Scotsman won major silverware in both of his spells in charge at Anfield – the first of which began in a player-manager capacity – and famously steered Blackburn Rovers to Premier League glory in the 1994/95 campaign.

Well and truly assured of legendary status in his native Argentina after guiding them to glory at the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Scaloni played largely in Spain.

And it was there that he won his biggest honour as a player: the 1999/2000 LaLiga title, in a Deportivo La Coruna side who upset the odds to be crowned champions of Spain for the first time in their history.

The man who restored glory to Liverpool during his legendary 15-year tenure as manager, Bill Shankly led the Reds back to the top flight and oversaw three First Division title wins, two FA Cup triumphs and a UEFA Cup victory.

As a player, the Scottish right-half was an icon at a different club: Preston North End, with whom he won the FA Cup in 1937/38.

Bill Shankly’s initially reluctant successor in the Liverpool dugout, Bob Paisley kept the good times rolling at Anfield, overseeing, among other successes, six First Division title triumphs and – most notably of all – the Merseyside giants’ first European Cup victory (he led them to three overall).

As a Reds player, Paisley won the First Division title in 1946/47, the first season of English football following the Second World War.

A Milan icon for what he did as a player and manager, Fabio Capello was a Serie A champion with the Rossoneri in both capacities – and he led them to 1993/94 Champions League success as boss.

Also a three-time Scudetto winner while playing for Juventus, Capello claimed the 2000/01 Italian title in charge of Roma, in between two LaLiga successes at Real Madrid.

Antonio Conte spent the vast majority of his playing career with Juventus, and he was rewarded with five Serie A titles, as well as Champions League and UEFA Cup glory.

Eight years after hanging up his boots, he oversaw his first of three straight Scudetti as Juve manager – before making Chelsea the first Premier League champions to play with a back three, as well as lifting the FA Cup. He later claimed another Serie A crown as a coach, this time with Inter in 2020/21.

One of the handful of managers to win the English top-flight title as a player and manager with the same club, George Graham starred as Arsenal did the double in 1970/71 – having previously lifted the League Cup at Chelsea.

Returning to Highbury as manager in 1986, Graham steered the Gunners to two First Division titles, two League Cups, an FA Cup and a Cup Winners’ Cup – employing the defensive style which precipitated that age-old chant: ‘ONE-NIL… TO THE ARSENAL!’

The man at the helm in England’s finest hour, victory at the 1966 World Cup, Sir Alf Ramsey might just be this country’s greatest ever manager.

Ramsey had previously guided Ipswich to the 1961/62 First Division title, an honour he claimed 11 years earlier as a player for Tottenham – where he won the second-tier and top-flight titles in successive campaigns, in fact.

Spain’s manager at the start of La Roja’s period of global domination, the late Luis Aragones oversaw his nation’s Euro 2008 triumph, giving the world its first taste of tiki-taka.

That success came more than 30 years after Aragones’ first managerial honour – the 1976/77 LaLiga title with Atletico Madrid, where was a three-time Spanish champion as a player.

Easily one of the best managers in history, Jupp Heynckes picked up where he left off in his playing days – during which he was a European and world champion with West Germany, as well as winning four Bundesliga titles and the UEFA Cup at Borussia Monchengladbach.

Heynckes enjoyed most of his managerial success in charge of Bayern Munich, overseeing four Bundesliga title triumphs across three spells – in addition to the small matter of 2012/13 victory in the Champions League, a competition he first won as Real Madrid boss 15 years prior.

A Serie A, Coppa Italia and Cup Winners’ Cup winner with both Sampdoria and Lazio, Roberto Mancini was undoubtedly one of Italy’s standout players of late 80s and the 90s.

He would prove to be a similarly top-class coach, managing Inter to three straight Scudetti before leading Manchester City to FA Cup success and their first Premier League title (‘AGUEROOOOO!’ and all that). And at Euro 2020, he proved his international managerial mettle by taking his nation all the way to glory.

Unquestionably one of the most influential managers in history, Total Football pioneer Rinus Michels won league titles in Spain and his native Netherlands with Barcelona and Ajax respectively – as well as the 1970/71 European Cup as boss of the latter, their first such triumph.

Having come painfully close to winning the 1974 World Cup in charge of the national team, Michels – a two-time Dutch champion as an Ajax player – returned for another stint in charge in 1986 – and this time, he led them to their major honour in the form of the 1988 European Championship.

Zinedine Zidane got used to glory as a player, scooping all of the biggest prizes in club and international football – the standouts being the Champions League with Real Madrid and, of course, the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with France (as well as the not insignificant matter of the Ballon d’Or and three FIFA World Player of the Year awards).

Zizou took that winning mentality into management, leading Real to multiple LaLiga titles and – most impressively of all – a record-breaking three consecutive Champions League triumphs between 2016 and 2018.

Belonging to the elite club of three men to win the World Cup as both a player and manager, Mario Zagallo did both within the space of nine years for Brazil – playing in their 1958 and 1962 successes then coaching his country to victory in 1970, as his old teammate Pele got his hands on the trophy for the third and final time.

Zagallo was later involved with yet another Brazilian World Cup triumph, serving as national team co-ordinator as they were crowned champions for the fourth time in 1994.

Vicente del Bosque saw the game change markedly between his playing and management days, but two things remained the same: his marvellous moustache, and his knack for winning.

A five-time LaLiga champion and four-time Copa del Rey winner as a midfielder for Real Madrid between 1975 and 1982, Del Bosque later coached Los Blancos to two LaLiga titles and two Champions Leagues around the turn of the century – followed by his mesmerising masterminding of Spain’s maiden World Cup win in 2010, and their retaining of the European Championship in 2012.

The most recent man to do the double of winning the World Cup as a player and manager, Didier Deschamps is nothing short of a legend in France.

Skipper as his country were crowned world champions for the first time in 1998 then kings of Europe for the second time two years later, Deschamps – whose most notable of numerous playing honours was the 1991/92 Champions League with Marseille – coached Les Bleus to victory at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

A league-winning manager with five clubs in four countries, Giovanni Trapattoni has to go down as one of the best ever to step into the technical area.

In addition to claiming major silverware in charge of Inter and Bayern Munich, ‘Il Trap’ steered Juventus to six Serie A titles, two Coppas Italia, two UEFA Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup and the big one: the 1983/84 European Cup – a trophy he had previously won twice as a player at Milan, who he also helped to two Scudetti.

Taking into account playing and coaching careers combined, there’s probably never been a more influential figure in the history of the game than Johan Cruyff – along with Rinus Michels, one of the fathers of Total Football.

A three-time back-to-back European Cup winner and nine-time Eredivisie champion during his legendary first spell as an Ajax player, the iconic Netherlands captain later managed the Amsterdam giants to 1986/87 Cup Winners’ Cup victory – before steering Barcelona, where he won the LaLiga title as a player, to the same honour two seasons later and, in 1991/92, their first European Cup.

Given how much of a serial winner he is in the dugout – league titles in multiple top-five European Leagues, numerous Champions League crowns etc – you’re not really surprised that Carlo Ancelotti picked up plenty of silverware as a player, are you?

A world-class midfielder, Ancelotti won the Scudetto with Roma and Milan, and two European Cups with the latter – where he got his hands on the trophy for the first time (and the second, for that matter) as a manager.

The finest manager of the modern era, Pep Guardiola’s enviable haul of major trophies – which includes trebles with both Barcelona and Manchester City – speaks for itself. And it’s bound to keep growing and growing.

His success as a coach shouldn’t have come as a shock, really: as a player, he won every major honour available as a member of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ – including the 1991/92 Champions League.

Franz Beckenbauer aka Der Kaiser was the greatest German footballer of all time, pioneering the role of sweeper and captaining his country to the two biggest honours in the international game: the Euros in 1972 and the World Cup two years later – as well as lifting three straight European Cups at Bayern Munich, and winning the Bundesliga title with the Bavarian giants and Hamburg.

In 1990, the later Beckenbauer joined that aforementioned elite club by coaching West Germany to glory at the 1990 World Cup. He later won the Ligue 1 title as Marseille boss, and led Bayern to Bundesliga and UEFA Cup success.