The players are the most popular faces of the sport and get both the accolades and the tirades after every win or loss. Managers, meanwhile, only get praise or backlash in rare occasions.
Some managers, however, have managed to earn themselves quite a reputation as the evidence of their work is very visible, making it almost impossible to not acknowledge them or launch tirades at them.
With that in mind, we thought to bring you some of the best managers in the world currently in this article. Overlyzer provides data from the best live betting websites and these managers are in charge of the best teams to bet on.
Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola had the best football education any enthusiast could ever ask for and not only did he apply the knowledge on the pitch when he played, he took it to the next level as a manager. Since breaking into the scene with Barcelona in 2008, Guardiola has been one of the best managers in world football.
In the current season, the Manchester City manager reached the 500 points milestone in the Premier League faster than some of the Premier League’s most popular and established names (213 games; 18 games faster than Jose Mourinho). He is currently on course to win his fourth Premier League title in just six years at the club.
Already Manchester City’s greatest ever manager and Barcelona’s greatest in the modern era, Guardiola is on the path to becoming one of the most successful and one of the greatest to ever sit in a team’s dugout.
Julian Nagelsmann
The 34-year-old German manager got into coaching in his 20s after his budding football career had to be cut short due to injury before he could make a name for himself as a player. By 28, he was already first team manager of Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga and at 34, is now leading German giants Bayern Munich like a seasoned general.
Since taking charge of the Bavarians at the beginning of the season, Nagelsmann has effortlessly continued the tradition of excellence that Bayern is known for. The manager who made minnow club Red Bull Leipzig into a genuine Bundesliga and European threat proved not to be out of his depth, and has bested the best of the best thus far.
His Bayern Munich side have scored 65 league goals this season – the most in Europe’s top five leagues – and have conceded only 19 in the process. Nagelsmann is also charging towards another UEFA Champions League title with the Germans and as things stand, they are the team to beat in the competition.
Carlo Ancelotti
The veteran has been in and out of this conversation since he began coaching in the 1990s. He is an accomplished manager with several trophies from managing the biggest teams in all of Europe’s top five leagues. Now in his second stint with Spanish Giants Real Madrid, he has re-entered himself into the discussion.
Los Blancos have been victims of their own successes in the past few years. They have been largely underwhelming and playing like they suffer from a lack of fresh ideas. The club is taking a new face now with most of the backbone of their successes in the past 10 years now gone. Ancelotti has not only stabled the ship following that shake-up, but has made the team one that teams do not want to play against.
Didier Deschamps
Didier Deschamps has been the manager of the French national team since 2012 and in that time, is the world’s most successful international manager. He has given many young French football players a chance at a better career by calling them up to the side to showcase their talents and attract top clubs.
He is one of three football icons to have won the World Cup as both a player and a coach, and he recently won the second edition of the UEFA Nations League after their unceremonious Euro 2020 round of 16 exit. Deschamps is currently gearing up for his second World Cup in charge of Les Bleus – which reports claim could be his last outing with the team – and his team is still considered a major favourite to win the competition.
Roberto Mancini
The Italian manager has found himself since taking the Italy national team job. After being appointed as the Azzuri boss just after they unfortunately missed out on the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Mancini has transformed Italy and has made them one of the most fearsome national teams to play against.
He broke and set the world record for the longest unbeaten run in international football by going 37 games unbeaten and won the Euro 2020 tournament in just two years of managing the Italian national team. A small technicality could see the Italian miss out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar later this year but his phenomenal rebuild of the team has earned Mancini a place on this list.
Jurgen Klopp
Jürgen Klopp has built a Liverpool team no one wants to play against, much like his fellow German at Bayern Munich. While Guardiola dazzles English football fans with his total football, Klopp has rivalled it with his intense, heavy metal football, also called “gegenpressing”. Both managers have been going at it for the better part of four seasons in the world’s most watched football league.
Klopp is the first manager to beat Guardiola three times in a row. In doing this, he has taken Liverpool back to the very top of English football, attracting world class players that would not have taken a second look at them just less than a decade ago.
Antonio Conte
Antonio Conte is most famous as a coach for breathing life into deadwood teams. He did it with Juventus, did it with Chelsea, did it with Internazionale, and is currently doing it with Tottenham Hotspur. The Italian may be a combustible figure but his genius is not exaggerated.
After a blistering return to Italy with Inter where he almost usurped the title from Juventus in his first season back and successfully did in his second season, Conte moved on to Tottenham who were struggling under Nuno Espirito Santo. The Italian is currently in the process of reshaping Spurs and the results are becoming clear for all to see.
Going by his track record, Spurs could be well on their way to a trophy after 14 years without one but what the fans of the North London side will be looking forward to is how he will lay a solid foundation for future successes, as he is known to do.
Graham Potter
Graham Potter is the only manager on this list who has not managed a top side. However, his exploits in the last two season has seen him touted as replacements for most of the top coaches in the Premier League.
The Brighton and Hove Albion manager has been described as “Guardiola in Skechers” by pundits, which show his similarities to the Spanish tactical genius. He is both a manager to watch out for in the future and also one of the best in the world at this time.
Simone Inzaghi
In 2020, the less popular Inzaghi brother guided Lazio back into the Champions League for the first time since the 2007/08 season, and guided them into the knockout stages. It was a no-brainer for Internazionale to hire him after Antonio Conte parted ways with them at the beginning of this season.
Simone Inzaghi has effortlessly picked up where Conte stopped, with many even suggesting that his style has made the Nerazzurri even sharper in attack compared to Conte’s teams. Inzaghi is being linked with a lot of top jobs across Europe for his exploits in the Inter dugout this season but Inter fans will be grateful to have him in their dugout as the rest of the world admires what he is doing in the blue half of Milan.
Lionel Scaloni
Lionel Scaloni is the manager who will go down in modern Argentine football history as the man who brought joy back to the football-loving nation. He led La Albiceleste to the Copa America after more than two decades and has finally given the team an identity which they lacked in the last few years.
Under Scaloni, Argentina has become one of the most feared teams in the CONMEBOL region and in the world, and as a result Argentine players are attracting more attention from the big leagues.
Scaloni will be leading the brightest Argentina side in decades to the Qatar 2022 World Cup in December and will be looking to better his predecessor’s second place record from 2014 and hand Argentina another World Cup.