Five great players who became good managers

1. Johan Cruyff

He was arguably one of the greatest footballers of all time, certainly the greatest Dutch footballer and one whose playing career was filled with silverware, both individual and as a team. He was a revelation at Ajax for whom, he won eight Eredivisie titles and three successive European Cups from 1971. In just 10 years at Ajax, he won 20 trophies before he left for Barcelona, with whom he won La Liga and Copa Del Rey. On an individual level, he won the Ballon d’Or three times, European Golden Shoe once and the Golden Ball at the 1974 World Cup, in which he was unlucky to not win.

After an illustrious playing career ended, Cruyff went into management and arguably had an even successful career. He started with Ajax again, where he won the league and Cup double in 83-84 and then moved to Barcelona. It was here that he transformed the Barcelona side into a super power and shaped the club philosophy, which is the reason why they are where they are today. He finished his spell as Barcelona’s manager with 11 trophies, which was a club record until his pupil Pep Guardiola overtook him a few years ago.

So, Cruyff is quite simply a man who could do no wrong in football, whether it was as a player or as a manager and is simply the greatest player to ever make it as a manager and not do too badly there as well.