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Much like the UEFA Men' POTY award, the Coach of the Year award this year was voted for by the coaches of all 24 teams at Euro 2020 and all 80 teams in the Champions League and the Europa League, and a selected journalist from each of UEFA's 55 member associations.
No coach was allowed to choose himself; the coach selected first by each member of the jury got five points, the second got three, and the third got one. Based on the cumulative point totals, the final three contenders were determined.
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The three shortlisted nominees for this year's UEFA Coach of the Year award are Manchester City's legendary tactician Pep Guardiola, Chelsea's Thomas Tuchel and Italy's Roberto Mancini.
So, without further ado, let's delve into each man's credentials and rank them on an ascending order of likelihood of winning the award:
#3 Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
Pep Guardiola is one of the most decorated managers in the game's history. After announcing his managerial prowess to the world with an excellent Barcelona team about a decade ago where he won three successive league titles and a continental treble, Guardiola has also tasted success in his subsequent managerial assignments.
The former Barcelona player did a league three-peat with Bayern Munich before arriving at Manchester City in the summer of 2016. At the Etihad, a league three-peat was not to be, but last season Guardiola's men won a third Premier League title in four seasons.
Apart from that, Guardiola took City to their maiden Champions League final, where the Cityzens failed to become the newest club to win the competition, though. In fact, Guardiola's men had the chance to win a quadruple, but lost in the FA Cup semis and won the League Cup, but did win the league as previously mentioned.
That could go against Guardiola in his bid to win this year's Coach of the Year award, as City seemingly had the personnel to become the first English team to win the quadruple.
#2 Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea)
Thomas Tuchel is not even a year into his latest managerial stint at Chelsea, but he has already been a whiff of fresh air at the club.
Arriving from French giants PSG earlier this year. whom he took to the Champions League final in 2019-20, Tuchel repeated the trick with Chelsea and went one step further. After arresting Chelsea's slide in the Premier League, which led to the sacking of Frank Lampard, the German embarked on an impressive unbeaten streak.
Chelsea recovered to finish fourth in the Premier League, but there was better fortune awaiting them in the Champions League.
Tuchel's men won three successive knockout rounds in the competition to reach the Champions League final, where they beat Pep Guardiola's Manchester City to notch up their first victory in the competition in nearly a decade.
#1 Roberto Mancini (Italy)
While Guardiola and Tuchel are strong contenders for this year's Coach of the Year award, Roberto Mancini's achievements at Italy's helm arguably surpass the duo's.
Assuming charge of an Azzurri team that failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in six decades, Mancini set about transforming Italy's fortunes. The Azzurri produced a perfect Euro 2020 qualification campaign, winning all ten games, to arrive at the tournament proper as one of the dark horses.
The Azzurri won all three group games at Euro 2020, and became the team to beat after a host of pre-tournament favourites - France, Portugal, Belgium - to name a few, crashed out before the semis. Mancini's men especially displayed a game-management masterclass in their quarter-final win over Belgium, but there was better in store for the Azzurri.
Although Italy failed to hold on to a slender lead against Spain in the semis, they prevailed in a penalty shootout to reach the final. There they recovered from an early goal down to beat hosts England in another shootout as Italy created a new record of the longest gap (53 years) between successive Euro triumphs.
Mancini's men are now only one game shy of matching Spain and Brazil's record of the longest unbeaten run in international men's football. That, along with the Euro triumph, makes Mancini the most deserving candidate to win this year's UEFA Coach of the Year award.
