Who are the 8 best Italian Coaches in history?

Many will remember him with the fairytale he had with Leicester City when he shocked the football world and won the English Premier League in the 2015 – 2016 season. But Claudio Ranieri had a wonderful career even before that historic championship. So, he should be added to the discussion for the best Italian coaches ever.

It all started back in 1986 when he retired as a defender and joined Vigor Lamezia to try his luck as a manager. His first trophies came with Cagliari which was a couple of Serie C titles. Years later Ranieri joined Fiorentina and give hope to its fans as gained promotion to the top flight by winning the Serie B title. A Coppa Italia and Supercup in his next years was enough for Fiorentina to write Ranieri’s name in their Hall of Fame.

Before Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea, Ranieri joined the London team in 2000. He built a solid team and finished second in the league only behind the invincible Wenger’s Arsenal. He also reached the Champions League semi-finals. After four years at the club, he didn’t win any trophies. After a short and prosperous spell at Valencia, Ranieri came back to Italy and had one of his best seasons with Roma. On his debut season at his first club as a player, Ranieri was only two points away from winning the Serie A title and ruining Mourinho’s treble with Inter.

The man who is a master of reading the game and adopting his team to different situations didn’t win as many trophies as he deserved throughout his career. But his fairytale at Leicester City would make up for all of his bad lucks in the past. In the 2015-16 season Ranieri got appointed as the head coach of Leicester and his main job was to avoid the relegation. He took the league by storm and guided the Foxes to one of the most delightful Premier League championships in history. Ranieri may not be the most decorated Italian manager on our list, but without a doubt, he is one of the best Italian managers of all time.

Massimiliano Allegri was a midfielder without great quality during his playing days, he is now considered among the best Italian coaches of all time. He started his coaching career in 2003 with Aglianese, a lower division club. He showed the first signs of great coaching potential at Cagliari by leading the team to a ninth-place finish in the Serie A.

In 2010 Milan he managed to get his first Seria A title in his debut year. Four years later Allegri left the club for another Italian giant Juventus due to the club’s financial problems that didn’t allow the team to compete at the top level. He holds a unique record with Juventus. During his five seasons at Juventus, from 2014 -2015 to 2018 – 2019 he managed to win the league titles every year. He also won the Coppa Italia after 20 years of unsuccessful efforts.

Massimiliano Allegri was close to winning a treble on two occasions. In both Champions League finals, he was on the loser’s side. Against Barcelona, in 2015 he lost 3 – 1, and against Real Madrid, in 2017 his team lost 4 – 1. Winning 13 major domestic trophies is proof that Massimiliano Allegri knows the ways of winning and is among the best Italian coaches in the game.

Carlo Ancelotti is one of the few coaches that won the UEFA Champions League four times. Two with AC Milan and two with Real Madrid. Unlike most successful Italian football managers, Carlo Ancelotti had an equally successful career as a player too. He was a part of a great team where he won 12 major trophies with the AC Milan side in the 80s. Also, he is the only coach who managed to win a league title in all 5 top leagues (England, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany).

Ancelotti’s first clubs as a manager were Reggiana and Parma. His first major trophy was with Juventus. He won the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup. In 2001 Ancelotti joined Milan and started one of the most brilliant eras in the club’s history. During his eight years in a charge in Milan, Ancelotti won eight titles including two Champions League trophies in 2003 and 2007.

Carlo Ancelotti, just like many other Italian managers in the past, managed Chelsea and won the Premier League and FA Cup in the 2009-10 season. His next club was Paris Saint-Germain where he added another top European league title to his name. In 2013 Ancelotti joined Real Madrid and won the magical 10th UCL by beating Atletico Madrid in the final.

Although Carlo Ancelotti’s career faced a decline in the last few years, his achievement his Real Madrid, winning La Liga and the Champions League put him again in discussion for the best managers in the world right now.

Here you can read a full manager’s profile article for Carlo Ancelotti.

Giovanni Trapattoni is one of the best winners and managers of all time and for sure among the best Italian coaches. He is in the top 10 managers with the most trophies won in the history of football. He has won a total of 23 trophies. After his retirement as a football player, he immediately started his career as a coach at Milan youth academy.

The first years of his coaching career were not full of rose petals. He took over as the manager of Juventus in 1976 and success was not far away. In his first spell at Juventus, Trapattoni won 13 trophies. The win of the European Cup against Liverpool in 1985, the first in the club’s history, was the top of the iceberg.
After five years at Inter where he won a Serie A title and a UEFA Cup,

Trapattoni returned to Juventus. In his return, he won another UEFA Cup. His career away from the Italian borders was also successful. He coached Bayern Munich in the 1994-95 season and between 1996 to 1998. He proved that he is a manager who knows how to win no matter where he is coaching. In his second spell with Bayern Munich, he guided them to a Bundesliga title and a German Cup.

Maybe his biggest disappointment is that he didn’t manage to lead the golden generation of Italy in the 2002 World Cup to glory. In a controversial tournament and despite their very good appearances, they got defeated by the hosts, South Korea.

This is an example that to be a great coach one doesn’t need to be a great football player. Arrigo Sacchi started a coaching career at a very young age (27) when he took over Fusignano in 1973. After a decade of coaching at a low-level division, his big break came with Parma. In the Coppa Italia, his team faced the great Milan of Silvio Berlusconi beating them twice. That convinced the president of Milan that Sacchi should be the club’s next coach. Arrigo Sacchi took over AC Milan in 1987.

Even though his coaching career was very short, he certainly is one of the masterminds that revolutionized football with his unique and innovative ideas. In a period when all the team’s used a man-to-man defending system, Sacchi was in front of his time and introduced zonal defending which focused on closing the gaps and spaces on the pitch.

AC Milan had some of the best players in the world at that time. The back line of Tassotti, Baresi, Maldini, and Costacurta, and the trio upfront with the famous dutch Rijkaard, Gullit, and Van Basten, could win against any opponent. The dominance in European football was a fact. It is only fair to consider that period’s Milan’s team as one of the best football teams in history next to Rinus Michel’s Ajax, Cruyff’s and Guardiola’s Barcelona and 1970 Brazil. Winning two European Cups in a row and another six international and domestic titles is strong proof of that.

In 1991 Sacchi decided that he wanted to challenge himself at a national level. He left Milan to become the manager of the Italy national team. With the best Italian player at that period, Roberto Baggio, Italy reached the final of the 1994 World Cup. But his period with Italy had a bitter taste after the loss against Brazil in the penalty shootouts. That defeat didn’t allow him to lift the prestigious World Cup trophy. Nevertheless, Arrigo Sacchi is one of the best Italian coaches of all time to his legendary legacy at AC Milan.

Antonio Conte is considered to be one of the other best Italian coaches in history and one of the few top Italian coaches still active. He managed to have success and win trophies in almost every team he has worked for. Conte spent over a decade playing for Juventus. He was a passionate player, a characteristic that still has as a coach. In 2004 he retired from professional football and in 2006 he started coaching in the lower Italian divisions following a different path than other former professional footballers. Conte began his coaching journey with Arezzo, Bari, Atalanta, and Siena. In 2009 he won the Serie B title with Bari and this was his first great achievement. After the success he had with Bari, he showed that he was ready for more challenging projects. In 2011, his favorite team, Juventus called him.

It is widely accepted that Antonio Conte set the core stone for Juventus success in the next decades. Three consecutive Serie A titles changed the mentality of Juventus and turned it into a serious winning team. After his spell there, Juventus went on to add another six championship trophies in the next years. Conte, despite his relatively young age, became a coach for a national team, leading Italy in the EURO 2016. In that competition, despite their efforts, they were knocked out by penalty shootouts against Germany.

After that Conte joined Chelsea and used his favorite style of play (3 at the back) and with an attractive 3-4-3 formation became champion and win the FA Cup title. On his return to Italy, Antonio Conte managed to end Juventus’s dominance in Italian football as he won the Serie A with Inter in 2021 to prove that if he has the right players, Antonio Conte can transform any side into a winner.

Marcello Lippi is one of the few Italian coaches who have managed to lead Italy to a World Cup win. His first coaching steps were in 1982 when he took over the Sampdoria youth team. The next seasons were sky rocking for Lippi. He climbed the ladder very fast and managed eight clubs until 1994. In that season he became the head coach of Juventus. In his first season, Lippi managed to win the double. He was an adaptable coach that could use different formations and strategies for each game with his priority to win.

The Italian League, Serie A, was the best league in the world back then. The coaches who managed to win it or at least compete for the title are considered to be among the best in the world. It is something similar to the Premier League today. Lippi won the Scudetto five times during his time at Juventus but the local dominance didn’t please him. Success in European competitions was his dream. Lippi led Juventus to four Champions League Finals, three consecutive from 1995 to 1998 and another one in 2003. His record was not good since he lost three against Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, and AC Milan and won only one in 1995 – 1996 defeating Ajax in the final.

Fabio Capello is well known for his great success during the best years Serie A. He was a decent midfielder that played for elite Italian sides such as Roma, Juventus, and Milan. In 1991 he was appointed as the manager of AC Milan and started a legendary journey in Italian football. Capello won four Serie A and three super cups in only five years at Milan. But winning the Champions League after a dominating game against Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona in the final with a score of 4-0 was his masterpiece at the Rossoneri.

With Real Madrid, he won two La Liga titles in 1996 – 1997 and 2006 – 2007. Aside from the trophies he has won, Fabio Capello will be remembered for his magnificent years at Roma from 1999 to 2004. During that period, Roma was one of the most attacking, fascinating teams in Europe with the legendary trio of Francesco Totti, Vincenzo Montella, and Gabriel Batistuta. Roma won its third and up to this day last Serie A title with Capello in 2001.

After that season, Capello decided to try his strength at a national and international level by coaching England and Russia. However, the achievements with Milan at the local and international level, the remarkable Scudetto with Roma, and the league titles in each of his four seasons with Juventus and Real Madrid are more than enough to consider Fabio Capello as one of the best Italian coaches of all time.