IFFHS ALL TIME RANKING OF THE WORLD'S BEST COACH (1996-2020)
Picture : Sir Alex Ferguson, coached from 1974 to 2013 ! He won two annual IFFHS Awards and is the leader of the All Time Ranking.
IFFHS ALL TIME RANKING OF THE WORLD’S BEST COACH (1996-2020)
The roles of a national coach and a club coach are very different and their interests often contrary. For this reason the IFFHS has carried out separate annual World votings from the start. The experience of 25 years has shown that this is the most appropriate approach. However it is not unusual for the best club coaches to become national coaches. And not rare a coach takes over after his job as national coach again the function of a club coach. So it is logically for the purposes of an IFFHS ALL TIME World Ranking to unite the two categories of coaches. (The List of the winners of the categories THE WORLD’S BEST NATIONAL COACH and THE WORLD’S BEST CLUB COACH is published in the column GALA AWARDS.)
The IFFHS has devised an equitable method for determining the ranking of THE ALL TIME WORLD’S BEST COACH. The IFFHS has taken in consideration the TOP 20 of each yearly ranking of each category concerned ( Top 20 of BEST NATIONAL COACH and Top 20 of BEST CLUB COACH) and allocated points to each place. So the first placed received 20 points, the second placed 19 points, the third placed 18 points …. And 1 point for the twentieth place. If the annual ranking comprised fewer than 20, no point will be awarded for the unoccupied places . Adding the points from the individual years of each category provides an IFFHS ALL TIME WORLD’S BEST COACH Ranking from 1996 to 2020.
Sir Alex Ferguson is the sovereign leader of the IFFHS All Time World’s Best Coach Ranking after 25 years (1996-2020). Ferguson has coached 39 years long from 1974 to 2013, exactly 2 153 games on the bench ! 26 years as Manchester United’s manager made him to one of the most successful coaches in the History !
Behind Ferguson, the 9 other coaches in the All Time Top 10.
With 257 points, he leads the ranking before Portuguese José Mourinho (226) and French Arsène Wenger (211), who has the particularity to never win an annual IFFHS Award, but the Award of the first Decade (2001-2010). Joaquim Löw, Germany’s National Coach since 2006 and Josep Guardiola, the Spanish football Genius, completed the Top 5. Diego Simeone (9th) is the first non-european in the Top 10 and also the leader of Argentina’s great Coach School with 9 Argentine coaches in the Top 50 ! After Argentina, Spain and Italy (7 each), Germany (6), Brazil and France (5) are the most represented countries in the Top 50.
The Top 50 is composed of 34 coaches from UEFA, 15 from CONMEBOL and 1 from CONCACAF . 25 of them are always active, especially José Mourinho, Joaquim Löw, Josep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone, the five coaches able to acceed to the Top 3 and to take the leadership of the ranking.
IFFHS ALL TIME RANKING OF THE WORLD'S BEST COACH (1996-2020)
| Place | Name | Country | Points |
| 1 | Sir Alex FERGUSON | Scotland | 257 |
| 2 | José MOURINHO | Portugal | 226 |
| 3 | Arsène WENGER | France | 211 |
| 4 | Joachim LÖW | Germany | 200 |
| 5 | Josep GUARDIOLA | Spain | 183 |
| 6 | Vicente DEL BOSQUE | Spain | 175 |
| 7 | Carlo ANCELOTTI | Italy | 169 |
| 8 | Marcelo LIPPI | Italy | 156 |
| 9 | Diego SIMEONE | Argentina | 152 |
| 10 | Luiz Felipe SCOLARI | Brazil | 151 |
| 11 | Guus HIDDINK | Netherlands | 145 |
| 11 | Marcelo BIELSA | Argentina | 145 |
| 13 | Otmar HITZFELD | Germany | 134 |
| 14 | Didier DESCHAMPS | France | 127 |
| 15 | Sven Goran ERIKSSON | Sweden | 126 |
| 16 | Fabio CAPELLO | Italy | 120 |
| 17 | Jürgen KLOPP | Germany | 110 |
| 18 | Franklin RIJKAARD | Netherlands | 104 |
| 18 | José PEKERMAN | Argentina | 104 |
| 20 | Rafael BENITEZ | Spain | 97 |
| 21 | Adenor Bachi "TITE" | Brazil | 91 |
| 22 | Oscar TABAREZ | Uruguay | 90 |
| 23 | Louis VAN GAAL | Netherlands | 79 |
| 24 | Massimiliano ALLEGRI | Italy | 77 |
| 25 | Karel BRUCKNER | Czech Republic | 76 |
| 26 | Carlos BIANCHI | Argentina | 75 |
| 26 | Giovanni TRAPATTONI | Italy | 75 |
| 26 | Roberto MANCINI | Italy | 75 |
| 29 | Fernando SANTOS | Portugal | 74 |
| 30 | Unay EMERI | Spain | 70 |
| 30 | Roberto MARTINEZ | Spain | 70 |
| 32 | Carlos Alberto PARREIRA | Brazil | 65 |
| 33 | Hector CUPER | Argentina | 63 |
| 33 | Otto REHHAGEL | Germany | 63 |
| 35 | Carlos Veri "DUNGA" | Brazil | 62 |
| 36 | Josef HEYNCKES | Germany | 61 |
| 36 | Alejandro SABELLA | Argentina | 61 |
| 38 | Zinedine ZIDANE | France | 59 |
| 39 | Maurizio POCHETTINO | Argentina | 56 |
| 39 | Marcelo GALLARDO | Argentina | 56 |
| 39 | Roger LEMERRE | France | 56 |
| 42 | Ramon DIAZ | Argentina | 55 |
| 43 | José CAMACHO | Spain | 54 |
| 44 | Antonio CONTE | Italy | 53 |
| 44 | Luis ENRIQUE | Spain | 53 |
| 46 | Gerard HOULLIER | France | 50 |
| 46 | Wanderley LUXEMBURGO | Brazil | 50 |
| 48 | Bruce ARENA | USA | 49 |
| 48 | Dirk ADVOCAAT | Netherlands | 49 |
| 50 | Felix MAGATH | Germany | 48 |