International football can be a very different game to the club one, and it takes a special kind of manager to succeed on that stage.
From globetrotting coaches to those who won it all, these are the very best ever to do it from the dugout at World Cups, Euros and beyond.
Let's dive straight in, shall we...
One of just two managers to coach five different national teams at the World Cup – and the only one to do so at five consecutive editions of the tournaments – Serbian legend Bora Milutinovic took charge of eight countries overall.
A Gold Cup winner with both the USA and Mexico – both of whom he managed at their home World Cups – Milutinovic guided China to their first World Cup finals in 2002.
Zlatko Dalic was at the helm as Croatia became the smallest European country by far to reach a World Cup final, finishing as 2018 runners-up to France.
He kept his homeland punching above their weight four years later, taking them to the semi-finals in Qatar and memorably knocking out Brazil along the way.
A legend of African football who finished third at the 1974 Africa Cup of Nations while playing for Egypt, Hassan Shehata went one better as a manager.
Well, he went a bit more than one better… The man nicknamed simply ‘Master’ made history by steering his country to three consecutive AFCON crowns between 2006 and 2010.
The only man ever to win the World Cup or Euros as coach of a nation other than their own, Otto Rehhagel helped write one of football’s great underdog stories.
Going into Euro 2004, Greece had never even won a game at a major tournament – but German Rehhagel only went and led them all the way to glory, stunning hosts Portugal in the final.
The man who delivered Portugal’s first major honour at Euro 2016 – sealing success by defeating hosts France in the final – Fernando Santos managed his homeland for eight years.
During his tenure, the former Greece boss – who coached each of Portugal’s ‘Big Three’ clubs, Benfica, Porto and Sporting – also oversaw victory in the inaugural, 2018/19 Nations League.
Assistant to Aime Jacquet as France won the 1998 World Cup, Roger Lemerre took on the main job after that tournament – and he got off to a flyer, making it back-to-back major trophies for Les Bleus with victory at Euro 2000.
Capped six times by France as a player, Lemerre later found success in African football, delivering Tunisia’s first AFCON title in 2004.
Uruguay’s second World Cup-winning manager, Juan Lopez masterminded one of the most notable upsets in international football history.
In the final match of the 1950 tournament (which, uniquely, was decided via a final group stage), Lopez’s Uruguay trailed Brazil 1-0 at the Maracana – only to score twice in the final 25 minutes to deny the hosts their first triumph on the game’s biggest stage.
Immensely popular in his native Uruguay, Oscar Tabarez coached the national team for 17 years over the course of two spells.
The second, from 2006 to 2015, saw the former school teacher lead the small South American country to 2011 Copa America victory – having clinched fourth place the previous year’s World Cup, their best performance in 40 years.
An inspirational figure, Tabarez continued to manage Uruguay for a number of years after being diagnosed with rare muscle-weakening condition Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Capped 32 times by Brazil as a goalkeeper during the 1930s and 1940s, Aymore Moreira has the distinction of being the last manager to coach a team to retaining the World Cup.
He did that with his homeland in 1962 – when a Selecao missing the injured Pele saw off Czechoslovakia in the final.
A truly legendary figure in management, Guus Hiddink began his coaching career by steering PSV to the treble – before going on to take charge of six different national sides.
After taking his native Netherlands to the semi-finals the 1998 World Cup, he remarkably repeated the trick with co-hosts South Korea in 2002 – then guided Russia to the last four of Euro 2008.
Hiddink’s hometown of Varsseveld is home to a museum in his honour – named the Guuseum, of course.
Among Argentina’s finest players of all time, Guillermo Stabile won the Golden Boot at the inaugural World Cup in 1930.
He proved to be pretty handy as a coach, too, guiding his nation to a record six Copa America victories between 1941 and 1957 and racking up more than 100 games in charge.
Having won it all as a manager at club level, Marcello Lippi took charge of the Italian national team for the first time in 2004.
The successful ex-Juventus boss oversaw the Azzurri’s greatest triumph since 1982: victory at the 2006 World Cup (Materazzi, Zidane and all that).
We’ll glaze over Italy’s rather feeble defence of the crown four years later during Lippi’s second spell…
Part of Argentina’s 2006 World Cup squad, Lionel Scaloni had to wait until taking over as manager to taste glory – and then some…
In 2021, he made history by leading his nation to Copa America glory in Brazil – something no foreign team had ever done before – before bringing the big one back home: the World Cup, as his Lionel Messi-captained and inspired Albiceleste beat France in arguably the best final of all time. He then retained that Copa America crown in 2024.
Still the only man to lead England to major tournament success, Alf Ramsey was knighted after securing that historic World Cup victory in 1966.
The former Three Lions right-back – who represented his country at their debut World Cup in 1950 – came close to following that up with European Championship glory in 1968 but had to settle for third place.
Number two for almost a decade under the legendary Helmut Schon, Jupp Derwall was appointed West Germany boss in 1978; within four years, he had propelled them to Euros glory.
He almost repeated the feat at the 1982 World Cup – where the Germans lost to Italy in the final – a tournament before which confidence was so high that he threatened to go home if his side lost their opener against Algeria (they did – and he didn’t keep his word).
Vicente Feola is well and truly assured of legendary status as the man who masterminded Brazil’s maiden World Cup triumph in 1958.
Helped by a 17-year-old sensation by the name of Pele, Feola’s Brazil became the first – and, to date, only – South American side to be crowned world champions on European soil, lifting the Jules Rimet trophy in Sweden.
A successful player with Reims and Monaco and recipient of one cap for France, Michel Hidalgo managed the national team from 1976 to 1984.
And, helped by the playmaking exploits of iconic captain Michel Platini he transformed the fortunes of Les Bleus: they came within a penalty shootout of the 1982 World Cup final, before winning Euro 1984 for their first major honour.
Coach of the Soviet Union at three World Cups, Gavriil Kachalin was at the helm for his country’s finest footballing hour: victory at the very first European Championship in 1960.
Leading a star-studded side featuring Russian greats like Lev Yashin and Igor Netto, Kachalin had multiple spells as manager of the national team – winning Gold at the 1956 Olympics during his first.
A serial winner, Luiz Felipe Scolari was the brains behind one of the most mesmerising World Cup-winning campaigns in history, leading Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo et al to the ultimate victory in 2002. Two years later, ‘Big Phil’ steered Portugal to the final of their home Euros.
His second stint as Brazil manager was less successful: although he clinched third place for the Selecao at their home World Cup of 2014, he was in the dugout for the aforementioned drubbing by Germany – not ideal.
Doctor Carlos Bilardo studied medicine while playing as a defensive midfielder; he ended up delivering Argentina’s second World Cup in 1986.
A keen and highly effective exponent of the 3-5-2 system, Bilardo steered a side led by Diego Maradona to glory in Mexico – then came agonisingly close to retaining the trophy four years later, only for West Germany to avenge their final defeat of ’86.
An utterly inspirational manager who believed wholeheartedly that attacking should be the focus of football, Cesar Luis Menotti masterfully oversaw Argentina’s maiden World Cup triumph – as hosts in 1978, seeing off a great Dutch team in the final.
Capped 11 times by Argentina as a striker, Menotti later led Argentina to glory at 1979 World Youth Championship – with a certain Diego Maradona at the forefront of that success.
In charge of Germany for 15 years, Joachim ‘Jogi’ Low honed an attack-minded style which delivered his country’s first World Cup for almost a quarter of a century in 2014.
En route to that triumph – which came four years after he had secured third place at the same tournament – Low masterminded one of the most astonishing results in World Cup history: that 7-1 semi-final demolition of hosts Brazil in Belo Horizonte.
Enzo Bearzot was nicknamed ‘Vecio’ (deriving from the Italian for ‘Old man’) – but he was only 54 when he led Italy to 1982 World Cup glory!
Bearzot had possessed the wisdom of someone far more senior, though, as evidenced by his incredible tactical versatility en route to winning that tournament – during which he shifted from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 to 5-2-3 to 3-5-2 with stunning effect.
Hungary’s ‘Magical Magyars’ of the 1950s remain one of the greatest teams ever assembled – and they excelled under the stewardship of Gusztav Sebes.
Advocating so-called ‘socialist football’ – a precursor to Total Football – Sebes guided Ferenc Puskas and co. to 1952 Olympic gold, orchestrated their (in)famous 6-3 victory over England at Wembley in 1953 (aka the Match of the Century), and came desperately close to winning the 1954 World Cup.
The second person to win the World Cup as both a player and manager, Franz Beckenbauer completed the set at Italia ’90.
West Germany’s sweeper supreme coached with the same class with which he played, steering his nation to their first of successive World Cup finals in 1986 and spending six years in charge overall.
After scooping numerous big honours as manager of Ajax, Rinus Michels took his revolutionary Total Football philosophy onto the international stage at the 1974 World Cup – where his iconic Netherlands side led West Germany in the final, only to lose 2-1.
He returned as national team boss in the mids-80s and this time, he secured the major international title the Dutch so craved by triumphing at Euro ’88 – in West Germany, no less.
A manager at a record six World Cups, Carlos Alberto Parreira is right up there with the most successful coaches never to have played the game themselves.
After leading Kuwait, Saudi Arabia – both of whom he guided to Asian Cup glory – and the UAE on the biggest stage, Parreira took the reins of his native Brazil for the first time in 1991 and won the 1994 World Cup.
He returned for a second stint at the helm in 2003, this time winning the 2004 Copa America.
Another member of the elite group of people to have won the World Cup on the pitch and in the dugout, Didier Deschamps coached France to their second crown 20 years after captaining them to their first.
And in 2022, the legendary ex-Juventus and Marseille midfielder – who kept Les Bleus an international force for a good decade – came within a penalty shootout of being the first manager to retain the trophy (ok, it was a different trophy by then) since Vicente Feola of Brazil in 1958.
Dider Deschamps was the third, Franz Beckenbauer was the second, and Mario Zagallo was the first: this icon of Brazilian football coached Pele and co. to World Cup victory in 1970 – having played alongside ‘O Rei’ in Brazil’s 1958 and 1962 triumphs.
Later a coordinator and assistant coach for the national team, Zagallo returned as Selecao manager for the 1998 World Cup and reached the final once more.
The moustachioed managerial maestro who perfected tiki-taka on the international stage, Vicente del Bosque put together one of the greatest teams the game has ever seen: the Spain side of the early 2010s.
Building on the foundations laid by Euro 2008-winning coach Luis Aragones, Del Bosque secured his country’s first ever World Cup – before retaining the Euros, a feat never previously achieved.
What Vittorio Pozzo did with Italy in the 1930s will probably never be repeated: the inventor of the Metodo (2-3-2-3) formation guided his nation to back-to-back World Cup triumphs in 1934 and 1938.
Possibly the first manager to make use of pre-tournament training camps, Pozzo – who had four spells in charge of the Azzurri – was a great innovator who is widely regarded as one of the finest coaches of all time in club or international football.
Helmut Schon had a 26-year managerial career – and he spent almost half of it as boss of West Germany, making them the best team in the world at the start of the 70s.
Holder of the record for the most World Cup matches managed (25) and won (16), Schon oversaw runs to two finals in both that tournament and the Euros – meaning West Germany reached every major final between 1970 and 1976 – winning the latter in 1972, and the former in 1974 on home soil.
