Here Are The 8 Coaches With The Most Champions League Trophies – Is Your Favorite Coach There?
Carlo Ancelotti is back at Real Madrid where he won his 4th UEFA Champions League title to become the Manager with the Most League Titles.
The Italian manager won the competition as a player with AC Milan when it was called the European Cup (1989, 1990) and had his 4th Champions League glory as a manager. He’s advanced to five finals overall, the most by a head coach in European Cup history.
But he isn’t the only manager who has won the most prestigious trophy in the Champions League.
In case you are wondering who is leading the pack in the number of Champions League honors, keep reading below.
Let’s go
1. Carlo Ancelotti – 4 Champions League Trophies
* Champions League wins: 2002-03, 2006-07, 2013-14, 2021-2022
Ancelotti will forever be cherished by Madridistas as the man who masterminded La Decima — their 10th European Cup success. They needed a late Sergio Ramos equ1aliser to take rivals Atletico Madrid to extra time in Lisbon eight years ago before Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo sealed a 4-1 win.
Prior to that, Ancelotti presided over finals of contrasting entertainment value as his AC Milan team prevailed on penalties against Juventus following a dour 0-0 draw in Manchester in 2003, before remarkably fumbling a 3-0 halftime lead against a Steven Gerrard-inspired Liverpool in Istanbul two years later, where they suffered their own heartache from 12 yards.
The Rossoneri and Ancelotti had their revenge against the same opponents in Athens two years later, with Filippo Inzaghi scoring both goals in a 2-1 win.
In 2022, they also won the UCL against all odds against Liverpool
2. Zinedine Zidane – 3 Champions League Trophies
* Champions League wins: 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18
If Ancelotti will always be remembered for No. 10, it was his old assistant who made a more seismic piece of history at Madrid. Like his mentor, Zidane’s first success in the competition came via penalties, on Ancelotti’s old stomping ground of San Siro in 2016, with Atletico Madrid again the victims.
No one had retained the European Cup since Milan won in 1989 and 1990 under Arrigo Sacchi (Ancelotti played in both those finals), but Madrid did so with a swaggering 4-1 win over Juventus in Cardiff.
Having done what many thoughts was impossible, Madrid duly went one better and beat Liverpool 3-1 in 2018 final, where Bale’s spectacular overhead kick was the crowning moment of their ‘threepeat’ success.
3. Pep Guardiola – 2 Champions League Trophies
* Champions League wins: 2008-09, 2010-11
This is the man who felt destined to top this list with daylight behind him a decade ago. In his first three Champions League seasons as a coach, Guardiola led a generation-defining Barcelona to a pair of stylish final victories over Manchester United in 2009 and 2011.
But it was the Blaugrana’s 2010 and 2012 semi-final losses to Inter and Chelsea, respectively, that set the tone for an otherwise-successful Bayern Munich tenure, with the Bundesliga giants bowing out three times in a row in the final four against Spanish opposition.
Guardiola finally scaled that hurdle again with Manchester City in 2021, thanks to an authoritative 4-1 aggregate win over Paris Saint-Germain, but then the freshly crowned Premier League champions ran into Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea.
* Champions League wins: 2003-04, 2009-10
Porto emerged from an upset-laden and chaotic 2003-04 Champions League as the victors after seeing off Monaco 3-0 in the final. On the back of UEFA Cup success the previous season, that meant Mourinho was off to the Premier League to announce himself as ‘The Special One’.
Despite being synonymous with England’s top flight, his spells with Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham (stop laughing at the back – they reached the final six months before he arrived) did not yield another Champions League trophy.
His second victory in the tournament completed a stunning 2010 treble with Inter, something that remains his crowning coaching achievement.
5. Alex Ferguson – 2 Champions League Trophies
*Champions League wins: 1998-99, 2007-08
Manchester United never made better use of ‘Fergie Time’ than in the 1999 final, when injury-time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer unforgettably downed Bayern Munich at Camp Nou.
United’s dominance in England at that time makes it surprising that it took until 2008 for them to reach another final, where John Terry’s slip in a Moscow penalty shootout helped them to pip Chelsea. Ferguson had designs on going back-to-back the following year, but then Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and the rest got in the way, just as they did two years later.
6. Jupp Heynckes – 2 Champions League Trophies
