Top 10 football managers with the most trophies won

Managers, more than anyone in football, are measured by their triumphs and there is no greater sporting success than lifting a trophy, so below we are going to review the 10 managers who have won the most trophies in the history of the sport.

It is worth pointing out that only official and first division titles are being considered.

10. Giovanni Trapattoni (23 trophies)

After an important career as a professional player at AC Milan, Trapattoni began a successful coaching career at the Rossoneri club, first in the youth teams and then as interim manager. However he failed to establish himself at Milan. Juventus bet heavily on him and "Trap" paid them handsomely, winning 14 trophies in 10 years, this being the most successful period in the manager's and club's career.

He would then go to Inter Milan, where he would spend five years with the team while winning three trophies with the neroazurris. Trapattoni's career would continue abroad, winning trophies in Germany with Bayern Munich, in Portugal with Benfica and in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg

The Italian is one of the few managers to have won four league titles in four European countries and one of the 3 to have won the three main UEFA tournaments (European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup).

9. Carlo Ancelotti (25 trophies)

Another outstanding AC Milan player who also became a very succesful manager and who is still in full force as of this writing, "Carletto" began his career on the benches as assistant to Arrigo Sacchi in the Italian national team from where he went on to Reggiana, Parma and Juventus as head coach. It would be at AC Milan where he would establish himself as a winning coach after lifting eight trophies in eight years, including two UEFA Champions League medals.

He continued his career with Chelsea, Paris Saint Germain, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, which allowed him to become the only manager to have won the top 5 European leagues (Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France).

8. Ottmar Hitzfeld (25 trophies)

He was an outstanding striker who played most of his career in Switzerland and who started out as a manager there, at the small SC Zug, where he got promoted to the first tier of Swiss football for the only time in its history. He would then go on to FC Aarau, winning a Swiss Cup and later, reaching Grasshopper with whom he would lift all national trophies at least once.

After he conquered Switzerland, he moved to the German Bundesliga, first with Borussia Dortmund and then with Bayern Munich, winning 7 editions of the league between the two clubs and winning a UEFA Champions League with each institution. In the case of Dortmund, the first and only one in their history, while the one won with Bayern ended the Bavarian club's 25-year drought in the competition.

7. Jock Stein (26 trophies)

Stein ended his career as a professional player at Glasgow´s Celtic, where he would also begin his managerial career with the Catholic club's reserve team. Despite considerable success in Celtic's reserve team, it was very difficult for him to manage the first team as the club had only three managers in their 60-plus years, meaning they gave great support to their managers and these remained for a long time in the institution.

This led Stein to move first to Dunfermline Athletic (where they won the Scottish Cup) and then to Hibernian, before returning to Celtic where he would start a successful era for the club, winning 10 Scottish Leagues, 8 Scottish Cups, 6 League Cups and the first and only European Cup for a Scottish club in history, all achieved with several of the young players he had coached in the club's reserve team a few years earlier.

6. Luiz Felipe Scolari (26 trophies)

With an extensive 40-year career as a coach, since he began at the modest CSA in Brazil, Luiz Felipe Scolari has had an enormous career in football where he has coached more than 20 clubs in seven different countries as well as the national teams of Kuwait, Brazil (twice) and Portugal.

The list of trophies won by Scolari is very varied, from the Uzbekistan league to the Asian Champions League, including some titles such as the Copa Libertadores (which he won with two different clubs) and the 2002 World Cup with Brazil.

5. José Mourinho (26 trophies)

Despite having a personality that usually marks a significant distance between those who support him and his detractors, the Portuguese is one of the best managers of the last couple of decades in football as well as being one of the most successful.

His first steps on the sidelines at a professional level were at Benfica and at União Leiria, but it was at FC Porto where he began to fill his cabinet with trophies, winning at least once every tournament he played with Os Dragoes in his two years with the blue and white club, including a UEFA Champions League

From there and from his signing for Chelsea, the story is very known, leading the English club to win the Premier League after 50 years. Something similar happened at Inter Milan where he led the Italian club to win the UEFA Champions League for 45 years, also achieving a treble (League, Cup and UEFA Champions League). Real Madrid, Manchester United and Roma are other clubs with which Mourinho managed to win trophies.

4. Valeriy Lobanovskyi (30 trophies)

He is considered the most successful football manager of the 20th century and one of the most innovative and influential in football. He implemented the philosophy of prioritizing the system over individualities, premises that were widely used by some great managers years later, such as Louis van Gaal, to name one.

Lobanovskyi developed his career mainly in the Soviet Union with clubs from the region that is now Ukraine (highlighting three spells at Dynamo Kiev) and the national teams of the Soviet Union itself and Ukraine. In addition to dominating the local arena, Lobanovskyi's Dynamo Kiev (in all three spells), was characterized by being very competitive at the European level, reaching advanced levels in competitions and even winning the Cup Winners' Cup twice.

3. Josep Guardiola (32 trophies)

Guardiola was a prominent footballer who was part of Cruyff's Dream Team at FC Barcelona and it was at the Catalan club where he began as a manager, specifically in the B team of the Catalan club with which he achieved promotion in his first year. A season later, he would coach the first team, winning an unprecedented sextuple in his first year.

From there, he would become one of the most sought-after managers in world football and after a successful spell with the Catalan club he would go on to Bayern Munich and later to Manchester City, where he has continued to win trophies.

2. Mircea Lucescu (35 trophies)

The veteran Romanian manager who is still active and current in Ukrainian football, has accumulated a large number of trophies in his different spells with clubs in his country, Italy, Turkey (highlighting that he won two consecutive leagues, one with Galatasaray and another with Besiktas), Russia and especially Ukraine, where he currently coaches Dinamo Kyiv but was the manager of Shakhtar Donetsk for a long time, consolidating himself not only at the national level (8 league titles and 6 Ukrainian cups in 12 years) but also internationally since he managed to lift the 2009 UEFA Cup, adding 22 trophies with the mining club.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson (49 trophies)

Mostly remembered for his successful 26-year spell at Manchester United, where he lifted 38 trophies, including 13 Premier Premier Leagues and 2 UEFA Champions Leagues, the Scotsman arrived at United in a time of few trophies (more than 20 years without winning the First Division) and a lot of uncertainty around the club, which he turned into one of the most successful in the world.

However, and despite the fact that the trophies obtained at the English club would be enough to make him the most successful manager in history, Ferguson also won 11 trophies with Aberdeen, breaking the Old Firm's classic dominance in Scottish football as well as a promotion at St Mirren.