7 legends who won the Champions League as both player and manager

4) Frank Rijkaard

Frank Rijkaard won his third Champions League title with Ajax

Player: One of the most successful players in Dutch history, Frank Rijkaard was a class apart when he plied his trade at AC Milan and Ajax. In all, he won 22 trophies with the two clubs – including three Champions League titles.

Rijkaard was a key cog in Arrigo Sacchi’s all-conquering AC Milan side in 1989 and 1990 when they won the European Cup two years in a row. It was the Italian who was responsible for converting him from a centre-back into a defensive midfielder. Rijkaard had even scored the goal in the final as Milan beat Benfica 1-0.

His third title came with Ajax in 1995 when the Eredivisie side beat AC Milan 1-0 in the final. With the likes of Edwin van der Sar, Frank de Boer, Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids in the side, Louis van Gaal’s team had even seen of Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.

Rijkaard led Barcelona to the Champions League title in 2006

Manager: After his retirement in 1995, Rijkaard first honed his managerial skills with the Netherlands squad and even took them as far as the semi-finals of Euro 2000 before moving to club football. And his most successful reign was undoubtedly his five-year spell with Barcelona between 2003 and 2008.

Although he started slowly due to the relatively poor squad he had at his disposal compared to Real Madrid, he soon turned it around and built a squad around Ronaldinho and added players such as Samuel Eto’o and Deco. The squad soon went on to win the 2005/06 Champions League title with a 2-1 win over Arsenal in spite of going down 1-0 to 10 men.