UEFA Champions League: Seven people to win UCL both as a player & manager

These athletes have been lucky enough to lift the coveted trophy in two different roles.

The UEFA Champions League has long been regarded as the pinnacle of club football. Lifting the famous silver trophy remains a dream of every player and manager, the world over. However, only a select few have won the competition both as the head coach of a club and as a player.

These seven men will go down in footballing history as some of the most iconic figures that the beautiful game has ever seen.

1. Miguel Munoz

Miguel Munoz was an integral part of the success of a rampant Real Madrid side in the 1950s. The midfielder captained the side for the first two of their five consecutive European title victories before his retirement from football.

Munoz then went about making the transition into coaching before earning himself the Los Blancos job in 1959. The Spaniard would go on to spend 14 years at the reins at the Bernabeu, winning nine league titles and two European Cups in the process. Munoz was the first man in history to achieve the admirable feat.

2. Giovanni Trappatoni

Several years after Miguel Munoz achieved the seemingly impossible, Giovanni Trappatoni became the second man to win the UEFA Champions League both as a manager and as a player. The Italian won his two European trophies as a player as part of a highly successful AC Milan side in 1963 and then in 1969.

Trappatoni retired from football in 1971 and embarked on a managerial journey that would begin in Milan and soon take the Italian to Juventus, Inter Milan and FC Bayern Munich.

In 1985, Giovanni Trappatoni lifted the UEFA Champions League as a manger with Juventus, beating Liverpool in the final.

3. Johan Cruyff

The Dutch legend was a pioneer of modern football as it was his playing and managerial styles that truly established the “Total Football” philosophy. An Ajax side, powered by Cruyff’s heroics would win three consecutive UEFA Champions League titles. The dutchman also was the recipient of three Ballon d’Or trophies over the course of his playing career.

Cruyff later led FC Barcelona to their maiden European triumph in 1992 when the Camp Nou side enjoyed a narrow victory over Sampdoria in the final.

4. Carlo Ancelloti

Carlo Ancelloti was one of the star in an AC Milan side that boasted the likes of Ruud Gullit and Marco Van Basten in the late 1980’s. Ancelloti won two consecutive European Cups with the Rossoneri in 1989 and 1990 before he hung up his boots and began his foray into management.

The Italian would first taste European triumph with his beloved AC Milan, bringing the famous trophy to the San Siro on two occasions before he led a rampant Real Madrid side to the 10th  UEFA Champions League title of their illustrious history.

5. Frank Rijkaard

A former teammate of Ancelloti, Rijkaard was part of the formidable Dutch contingent of the AC Milan side of the late 80s and the early 90s, winning the trophy with the Rossoneri in 1989 and 1990 and even scoring the winner in the 1990 final. Rijkaard would win the trophy one final time in his last game as a professional footballer in 1995 with Ajax.

After spells in management with the Netherlands and Sparta Rotterdam, Rijkaard was hired as the manager of Barcelona in 2003 where he played a huge role in ushering a period of immense success at the Camp Nou. The Dutchman became the fifth individual to lift the trophy as a manager and as a player in 2006, when Barcelona defeated Arsenal in the final of the competition.

6. Pep Guardiola

If Johan Cruyff was the pioneer of Total Football, Pep Guardiola was the man who brought it into the 21st century. As an important part of Cruyff’s revolutionary Barcelona side, Guardiola won the UEFA Champions League in 1992. The Catalan midfielder spent over a decade at the Camp Nou as a player before being appointed as Frank Rijkaard’s successor to the role of the FC Barcelona manager.

Guardiola won the European trophy in 2009 and in 2011, defeating Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United on both occasions.

7. Zinedine Zidane

The French midfielder will go down in history as one of the most naturally gifted players of all time. The world cup winner scored one of the most iconic goals in Champions League history when he volleyed to Roberto Carlos’ cross with his left boot in the 2002 final against Bayer Leverkusen. At the end of a trophy-laden playing career, Zidane embarked on a similarly decorated managerial career when he was appointed as manager of Los Blancos in 2016.

The Frenchman won the UEFA Champions League during his debut season at the club and became the first manager to defend the title since the competition had been changed to the Champions League format that we know today. He soon added a third trophy in succession before taking a hiatus from management.

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