Which ‘Ballon d'Or’ winners have had the most successful careers as managers?

When star players become managers

A few days ago, Zinedine Zidane was announced as the new manager of the French national team.

During his introductory press conference, he said that taking up the post was a dream come true: “I’d received offers to manage clubs over the last four or five years, but I turned them all down because I wanted to wait for the French national team. It was the only thing I wanted to do. I’ll give it my all to ensure this team keeps winning. That’s what drives me. I’m very happy and ready for this challenge.” (Lance!)

At 54, the former midfielder will be tasked with continuing the work of Didier Deschamps, who left a historic legacy after 14 years in charge of Les Bleus. His greatest achievement was winning France’s second World Cup in 2018, 20 years after their first title.

During the 1998 title-winning campaign, Deschamps shared the squad with Zidane, who would go on to win the Ballon d'Or the end of that year.

Since then, both have built remarkable careers as managers.

With that in mind, we dug into the statistics to find out which Ballon d'Or winner has had the most successful career as a manager.

Zinedine Zidane – The Champions League maestro

Since we’re talking about Zidane, it's incumbent to highlight his achievements as a manager.

Although he is remembered primarily for his achievements on the pitch – particularly with Juventus, Real Madrid and the French national team – ‘Zizou’ has also built one of the most successful coaching careers among the winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ who have gone on to manage from the touchline.

“I like to pass on everything I’ve learnt in the sport.” – Zinedine Zidane

The former midfielder retired at the age of 34, after France finished as runners-up at the 2006 World Cup, and even went so far as to say he would never become a manager. Over time, however, he changed his mind and began to take on coaching roles, particularly at Real Madrid, the club for which he won six titles as a player.

Reflecting on this change of direction, Zidane summed up his motivation: “When I retired, I used to say I’d never become a manager. But I love working with people and I enjoy passing on everything I’ve learnt in the sport.” (SKWEEK)

At the Spanish club, he started out as an advisor and sporting director, before working as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant and taking charge of Real Madrid Castilla in 2014. His strong results led to his promotion to the first team in January 2016.

At the time, the decision was seen as a risky move. Although he was a club legend, Zidane still had little experience as a manager.

But it paid off handsomely.

Just a few months after taking charge of the club, Zidane won the Champions League.

In his first full season in charge of the first team, Zizou led Real Madrid to victory in the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup and La Liga, as well as winning another Champions League and overseeing a historic run of 40 matches without defeat.

The following season, he made even more history: he won the Club World Cup again and became the first manager to win the Champions League in three consecutive seasons.

After such a successful spell, Zizou decided to leave Los Blancos, but returned less than a year later. The club had gone through other managers who had failed to maintain the high standards set by the Frenchman.

During his second spell, between 2019 and 2021, he continued to rack up trophies and led Real Madrid’s best league defence in three decades.

Over almost five years and more than 260 matches, Zidane’s team had a 66 per cent win rate, with 174 victories and 605 goals scored.

In total, Zidane won 11 titles as Real Madrid manager: two La Liga titles, three Champions Leagues, two Spanish Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups.

In other words: although he had already been a key figure in the club’s history as a player, his spell as manager was even more successful in terms of titles – almost double the number of honours he won on the pitch for Madrid.

It now remains to be seen whether he can replicate that same success with the French national team.

Coaching career statistics (as head coach only):

• Start of coaching career: 5 years and 356 days after retiring as a player

• Length of career: 7 years and counting

• Titles: 11

• Teams managed: 5

• Longest spell: Real Madrid (4 years and 290 days)

Johan Cruyff – The man who reinvented Barcelona

Johan Cruyff is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players in the history of football.

Playing for Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch national team, the star revolutionised the sport with the philosophy known as ‘Total Football’ – the idea that any player could take on the role of another within the team, emphasising adaptability, intelligence and versatility.

As a player, Cruyff won over 20 trophies and three Ballon d’Or awards – making him one of only five players in history to have won the award more than twice.

But his impact on football went far beyond his achievements on the pitch.

Throughout a coaching career that spanned more than a decade, Cruyff continued to transform the way the game was thought about.

A year after retiring, in 1984, he returned to Ajax – this time as manager. With his status as an idol already firmly established, he quickly built a new reputation on the touchline, winning two Dutch Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1987.

The following year, he took charge of Barcelona, another club for which he had shone as a player.

And the challenge was immense.

Since his departure in 1978, the Catalan club had been going through a period of instability. The team had lost a clear playing identity, and each new manager brought a different approach, affecting results and alienating the fans.

When he arrived at Barça, Cruyff found a club in crisis, both on and off the pitch.

As he had always done throughout his career, he decided to completely change the club’s direction. He overhauled the squad, altered training methods – taking an active part in sessions – and transformed the youth academy, prioritising the development of young talent and closely monitoring the work at La Masia.

“When someone is down, you help them get back on their feet. When someone is too confident, you bring them back down to earth.” – Johan Cruyff

Furthermore, Cruyff aligned Barcelona’s style with the principles of his beloved “Total Football”, implementing a more dynamic style of play based on possession, quick passing, constant movement and the versatility of the players.

This philosophy also extended to the youth teams, preparing young players for a more natural transition to the first team.

As a result, the atmosphere at Barça began to change. Cruyff was involved in every aspect of the club and had a clear vision of where he wanted to go – a vision that proved spot on.

His aim was to create a more united, cohesive and efficient team. As he himself explained: “I’m a people manager. I try to get them to move in a certain direction. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be tough on them. You have to say exactly what’s right and what’s wrong. [...] When someone is down, you help them get back on their feet. When someone is overconfident, you bring them back down to earth.” (Johan Cruyff Institute)

Over the course of more than seven years and over 400 matches in charge of the club, Barcelona re-established itself as a national and continental powerhouse. Under his leadership, the club won 11 titles, including four consecutive La Liga titles and the first European Cup in the club’s history, in 1992.

Despite this success, Cruyff was also known for his fiery temper and difficult personality.

A run of poor results towards the end of his tenure exacerbated conflicts with president Josep Lluís Núñez, and the manager was eventually sacked in 1996.

After leaving Barça, many Dutch players wanted Cruyff to take charge of the Netherlands national team, but the KNVB chose Leo Beenhakker instead. As a result, he spent more than a decade away from management, working mainly as an adviser behind the scenes at Ajax and Barcelona.

Between 2009 and 2013, he returned to the touchline to manage the Catalonia team. His highlight came straight away on his debut, when the team beat Argentina in a friendly.

Cruyff passed away in 2016, aged 68, but his legacy lives on in football, both in the development of players and in coaching philosophies.

Pep Guardiola, who was discovered by Cruyff in Barcelona’s youth ranks before becoming one of the greatest adherents to his coaching philosophy, has said: “Cruyff was the person who most influenced football worldwide, first as a player and then as a manager.” (The Guardian)

Throughout his coaching career, Cruyff won 14 trophies and established himself as one of the most influential minds in the history of football.

Coaching career statistics (as head coach only):

• Start of coaching career: 1 year after retiring as a player

• Duration of career: 13 years and 30 days

• Titles: 14

• Teams managed: 3

• Longest spell: Barcelona (7 years and 322 days)

Alfredo Di Stéfano – The architect of Valencia

The first player to win the Ballon d'Or more than once, Alfredo Di Stéfano represented Argentina, Colombia and Spain throughout his career and amassed an impressive collection of titles as a player. His most successful spell was at Real Madrid, where he won 17 official trophies between 1953 and 1964.

A year after hanging up his boots, in 1966, Di Stéfano began his career as a manager, remaining in the role for over 14 years.

In his native Argentina, he enjoyed memorable spells with both sides of the country’s fiercest rivalry – helping Boca Juniors win the Argentine Championship in 1969, before repeating the feat with River Plate just over a decade later.

In Spain, he also managed the club that had defined his career as a player: Real Madrid. At the helm of the team, he won the Spanish Super Cup in 1990, aged 64 – his last major title as a manager. After that, he moved into a behind-the-scenes role and later became the club’s honorary president, a position he held until his death in 2014.

His most memorable spell as a manager, however, came at another Spanish club: Valencia.

In total, his three spells at the club amounted to seven years in charge, during which time Di Stéfano recorded over 100 wins and lifted three titles – one in each spell.

During his first spell, he won Valencia’s first-ever La Liga title. During his second, he led the club to its first European title. During his third, he won the Spanish Second Division and secured the team’s return to the top flight following relegation the previous season.

Coaching career statistics (as head coach only):

• Start of coaching career: 1 year after retiring as a player

• Career duration: 14 years and 296 days

• Titles: 7

• Teams managed: 8

• Longest spell: Valencia (7 years and 52 days)

Franz Beckenbauer – Germany’s genius

Less than a year after retiring from the pitch in 1983, the legendary German centre-back Franz Beckenbauer began his career as a manager.

And his first challenge was to be one of the most difficult: taking charge of the German national team.

“Finishing second isn’t good enough for me.” – Franz Beckenbauer

He was appointed before German reunification, which means that Beckenbauer was in charge of the last national team that did not include any players from East Germany.

Despite the scale of the task and the enormous pressure of managing one of the world’s greatest national teams, Beckenbauer showed he was up to the challenge.

West Germany had reached the final of the 1982 World Cup under Jupp Derwall, but were ultimately defeated by Italy. With his fiercely competitive spirit, Beckenbauer took on the task of winning the title and made it clear that coming close was not enough: “We reached the final four years ago, but finishing second is not enough for me.” (The New York Times)

And he kept his promise. Under his leadership, the German national team reached two consecutive World Cup finals – both against Argentina.

Following the defeat in 1986 came the rematch in 1990, when Germany beat Argentina to win their third World Cup title.

This achievement placed Beckenbauer – who had also lifted the World Cup in 1974 as a player – in an extremely select group. He became one of only three men in history, alongside Brazil’s Mário Zagallo and France’s Didier Deschamps, to win the World Cup both as a player and as a manager.

Following the World Cup triumph, the two-time Ballon d'Or champion had a spell at Olympique de Marseille. Signed midway through the season, he led the club to the Ligue 1 title in 1991.

Despite equally brief spells in charge of Bayern Munich shortly afterwards – the club for which he had shone for 14 years as a player – he still went on to win two further titles: the Bundesliga in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996.

The end of this second spell at Bayern effectively marked the end of Beckenbauer’s career as a manager. Even so, he continued to exert a major influence at the club after taking over as president in 1994, a position he would hold for 15 years.

Coaching career statistics (as head coach only):

• Start of coaching career: 347 days after retiring as a player

• Duration of career: 6 years and 257 days

• Titles: 4

• Teams managed: 3

• Longest spell: West Germany (5 years and 299 days)

Other leadership stories

Other winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ went on to have coaching careers which, although less successful than those mentioned above, are also worthy of note.

Stanley Matthews, winner of the first-ever Ballon d'Or in 1956, began his managerial career just one month after retiring as a player in 1965. He had a brief and turbulent spell at Port Vale, but in the early 1970s he led the Maltese club Hibernians to three league titles.

Luis Suárez, winner of the 1960 Ballon d'Or, enjoyed a 14-year coaching career, including three separate spells at Inter Milan. His greatest achievement as a manager, however, came at the helm of the Spanish Under-21s, whom he led to victory in the European Under-21 Championship in 1986.

As a player-manager, the 1962 Ballon d'Or winner, Josef Masopust, helped the Belgian club Crossing Molenbeek secure promotion to the country’s top flight in 1968. Although he spent most of his playing career at Dukla Prague, he was unable to replicate that success as manager of the club – the only Czechoslovak national title he won as a manager was with Zbrojovka Brno (the first in the club’s history).

Oleg Blokhin, winner of the 1975 ‘Ballon d'Or’, managed several Greek clubs after retiring as a player, before taking on a prominent role with the Ukraine national team. One of the leading figures in the national team’s history following the country’s independence, he had two spells in charge of the side, spending a total of more than five years at the helm. During this period, he led Ukraine to qualification for the 2006 World Cup and managed the team at Euro 2012, which was held on home soil.

Ballon d'Or’s two-time champion Kevin Keegan, who passed away this year, built a remarkable career both as a player and as a manager. At the helm of Newcastle United, he became one of the greatest icons in the club’s history – not only avoiding relegation on two occasions, but also transforming the team into a genuine contender for the English title in the 1990s. Later, he also won the hearts of the supporters at Fulham and Manchester City, helping both clubs secure promotion.

French midfielder Michel Platini, one of the few players in history to have won three Ballons d’Or, took charge of the French national team between 1988 and 1992, shortly after retiring as a player. Their qualifying campaign for Euro 1992 was impressive: France won all eight of their group matches and set a record run of 19 matches without defeat. Les Bleus’ performance in the tournament, however, was a major disappointment, and Platini decided to end his coaching career for good.

Interestingly, Ruud Gullit’s greatest achievement as a manager came whilst he was still a professional player. More than a year before retiring, the 1987 ‘Ballon d'Or’ winner took on the role of player-manager at Chelsea after Glenn Hoddle left the post to take charge of the England national team. And Gullit surprised everyone. In his first major coaching role, he led the Blues to the FA Cup title in 1997 – the club’s first major trophy in 26 years. The achievement also made history: he became the first manager from outside the British Isles to win a major British football title. The rest of his career, however, did not enjoy the same level of success.

Another of the few players to have won theBallon d'Ore three times, Marco van Basten also pursued a career in management after retiring. As well as managing a number of Dutch clubs, he was best known for his spell of more than three years in charge of the Netherlands national team in the 2000s. Under his leadership, the team had a perfect run in the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, but, just as happened with Platini and France in 1992, they disappointed in the tournament itself. The Netherlands also failed to win Euro 2008, despite impressive victories over Italy and France in the group stage.

The legendary German Lothar Matthäus, winner of the 1990 ‘Ballon d'Or’, began his coaching career in the early 2000s. Among his roles were managing the national teams of Hungary and Bulgaria, but the highlight of his coaching career came with Partizan’s Serbian SuperLiga title in 2003.

Jean-Pierre Papin, winner of the 1991 ‘Ballon d'Or’, did not have a particularly distinguished career as a manager, but he did achieve some notable successes. He led the amateur club Bassin d’Arcachon to promotion in the 2000s and, more recently, achieved good results in charge of Olympique de Marseille’s B team.

Hristo Stoichkov cemented his legacy as one of the greatest icons in the history of the Bulgarian national team during his playing days, but he frequently faced difficulties during his years as the team’s manager. Nevertheless, he enjoyed some success at the helm of the Bulgarian club Litex Lovech and the South African side Mamelodi Sundowns.

Matthias Sammer, winner of the 1996 ‘Ballon d'Or’, was already a Borussia Dortmund legend thanks to his years as a player. Shortly after hanging up his boots, he took charge of the team and further strengthened his ties with the club, leading Dortmund to the Bundesliga title in 2002.

Andriy Shevchenko, winner of the 2004 Ballon d'Or, managed the Ukrainian national team for five years, between 2016 and 2021. During his tenure, he became known for leading his side to a surprise victory over the then European champions Portugal, securing qualification for Euro 2020. It was under Shevchenko’s leadership that the team reached the quarter-finals of a European Championship for the first time in the country’s history. Following a brief and unsuccessful spell at Genoa in Italy, Shevchenko took over as president of the Ukrainian Football Federation.

Fabio Cannavaro is the most recent winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ to pursue a career as a manager. Honoured in 2006, he has built a highly varied career on the touchline, working across different countries and continents. He won three titles in Chinese football, with his greatest successes coming during his two spells at Guangzhou Evergrande, which totalled four years in charge of the team. He currently manages the Uzbekistan national team, which recently took part in its first ever World Cup.

Other winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ have also pursued careers as managers, but their records have been less impressive: Omar Sívori, Bobby Charlton, Flórián Albert, Gerd Müller and Allan Simonsen.

The legacy beyond the pitch

And there you have it: the winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ with the most successful coaching careers.

As you can see, there are many examples that show how a passion for the game on the pitch often naturally translates into the ability to lead it off the pitch.

With 11 titles won as a manager, Zidane is the second-most successful winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ in terms of his career on the touchline, behind only Johan Cruyff, who lifted 14 trophies.

The question now is: will Zizou manage to overtake Cruyff in the coming years, using all his talent to lead the French national team to new triumphs – just as he did at Real Madrid?

We’ll find out soon enough.