In competitive football, it’s not just enough to have the best players to win trophies.
To be successful, you also need a great coach who can mold a group of talented individuals into a title-winning team.
A few coaches have distinguished themselves as the best above the rest over the years, winners who have consistently coached their various teams to title successes.
Here are the top 10 football coaches with the most trophies in football history, updated for 2026, counting down from 10 to 1.
Top 10 Football Coaches With The Most Trophies In History (2026)
10. Giovanni Trapattoni — 23 Trophies
Giovanni Trapattoni is an Italian football manager and former player who is considered one of the most successful club coaches in Italian football history.
As a manager, he began his career at Milan as a youth team coach before becoming caretaker coach, going on to manage several top clubs in Italy including Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan, as well as clubs in Germany, Austria, Portugal, and the Republic of Ireland national team.
Trapattoni won numerous trophies throughout his managerial career, including seven Serie A titles, two Bundesliga titles, and one Portuguese Primeira Liga title.
He also won the UEFA Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup, and he is one of only four coaches in history to have won the Champions League, UEFA Cup, and Cup Winners’ Cup, a record that underlines his extraordinary versatility across different football cultures.
Additionally, he managed the Italian national team from 2000 to 2004, leading them to the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup and the group stage of Euro 2004.
9. Ottmar Hitzfeld — 25 Trophies
The former Switzerland manager is one of the best coaches Germany has ever produced, nicknamed “der general” because of his commanding presence on the touchline.
During his 31-year coaching career, Hitzfeld won an impressive 25 titles primarily with German sides Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, including domestic leagues and cups, as well as a Champions League title with both clubs, a feat that remains one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the competition.
He also clinched a World Club Cup title before his retirement in 2014, and is one of the best football managers of all time.
8. José Mourinho — 26 Trophies
The Portuguese manager is not just one of the coaches with the most trophies in football history but also one of the highest-paid football coaches in the world.
Mourinho has won a total of 26 trophies in his managerial career, that is if you exclude the trophies he won as an assistant coach at Barcelona and FC Porto.
He won his most recent title when his AS Roma side clinched the 2022 UEFA Europa Conference League, and with that feat, Jose Mourinho became the first coach to achieve the UEFA treble by winning the Champions League, UEFA Cup/Europa League, and Europa Conference League.
In July 2026, Mourinho returned to Real Madrid for a second spell as head coach, reuniting with the club where he won a historic 100-point La Liga title in the 2011/12 season.
7. Jock Stein — 26 Trophies
Jock Stein was a phenomenal centre-half for Celtic as a player, but his managerial career for the Hoops is what he will forever be remembered for.
He began his managerial career in 1960 with Dunfermline and was the first manager of a British side to win the European Cup, leading Celtic to a 2-1 victory over Inter Milan in Lisbon in 1967 in one of the most celebrated achievements in the history of British football.
He also led Celtic to nine consecutive Scottish League championships between 1966 and 1974, while winning the Scottish League Cup six successive times.
Stein tragically died of a heart attack at the end of Scotland’s World Cup qualifying victory over Wales in September 1985, just moments after guiding his country to the tournament, leaving behind a legacy that Scottish football has never surpassed.
6. Luiz Felipe Scolari — 26 Trophies
The Brazilian tactician has had quite a good career, to put it lightly.
Scolari has managed many teams across various continents, from South America to Europe and the Middle East, winning over 26 major titles as a coach.
The most famous of which is a World Cup triumph with his native Brazil in 2002, ending the Selecao’s 24-year wait for a fifth World Cup title.
He also led Portugal to the final of the 2004 European Championship and the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, establishing himself as one of the finest international managers of his generation and one of only eight coaches in history to win the FIFA World Cup.
5. Carlo Ancelotti — 31 Trophies
Carlo Ancelotti might have had an impressive career as a player, but his coaching career is nothing short of phenomenal.
The Italian manager is the only manager to have won the league title in all of Europe’s top five leagues, which is a beyond astonishing feat, and he is the most decorated manager in UEFA Champions League history having won the trophy a record five times, with AC Milan (2003, 2007) and Real Madrid (2014, 2022, 2024).
He has also won 5 UEFA Super Cups, 3 FIFA Club World Cups, 2 La Liga titles, 2 Copa del Reys, 1 Serie A, 1 Coppa Italia, 1 Premier League, 1 FA Cup, 1 Ligue 1, and 1 Bundesliga among many other honours.
Now he has left Real Madrid and become the coach of the Brazilian national team, guiding the Selecao to the 2026 World Cup where they reached the round of 16 before a defeat to Norway.
4. Valeriy Lobanovskyi — 33 Trophies
Valeriy Lobanovskyi was one of the most successful coaches in history in terms of trophies won, and one of the most visionary football managers the sport has ever produced.
He was a Soviet and Ukrainian football player and manager who, as a coach, managed 7 teams including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine, and the Soviet Union.
Lobanovskyi’s Dynamo Kyiv team became the first side from the Soviet Union to win a major European trophy in 1975, when they defeated Hungarian side Ferencváros in the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup.
Throughout his managerial career Valeriy Lobanovskyi won 33 official trophies, making him one of the most decorated managers of all time, and he is widely credited as the pioneer of the scientific, data-driven approach to football management that has become standard practice in the modern game.
3. Mircea Lucescu — 38 Trophies
The Romanian is one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game, his coaching career spanning various countries from his native Romania to Turkey, Ukraine, and Italy.
Over a career that spanned more than four decades, Lucescu won 38 titles as manager, with his defining spell coming at Shakhtar Donetsk where he spent twelve extraordinary years winning 8 Ukrainian Premier League titles, 6 Ukrainian Cups, 7 Ukrainian Super Cups, and the 2009 UEFA Cup.
He is one of the few coaches to have managed over 100 UEFA Champions League games, a testament to his longevity and consistency at the highest level.
Mircea Lucescu passed away in April 2026 at the age of 81, leaving behind a legacy that stretched across nearly five decades of professional management and a trophy cabinet that only two men in the history of football have surpassed.
2. Pep Guardiola — 40 Trophies
Pep as he is popularly known is one of the best football coaches and most successful managers in the modern game.
The former Spanish and Barcelona FC midfielder has transitioned seamlessly from player to one of the greatest coaches in football history, winning 40 official trophies across Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City.
At Manchester City alone, Guardiola won 20 trophies across his decade at the Etihad, including 6 Premier League titles, 1 Champions League, 3 FA Cups, 5 Carabao Cups, 3 Community Shields, 1 UEFA Super Cup, and 1 FIFA Club World Cup, transforming the club from occasional title winners into the defining force of modern European football.
In the 2022/23 season, Pep Guardiola won the Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League, becoming the second manager to win the treble with an English club, and this was also his second treble as a coach after having won it with Barcelona in 2009.
His 2023 FIFA Club World Cup and 2023 UEFA Super Cup victories added further gloss to his legacy before he left Manchester City in May 2026 after announcing he would not be renewing his contract.
He is without question one of the greatest soccer coaches of all time and the most successful active-era manager the sport has ever seen.
1. Sir Alex Ferguson — 49 Trophies
The great Scot is arguably the greatest manager in football history, having won 49 titles across various competitions spanning domestic leagues, cups, and international triumphs during his coaching career in Scotland and England.
During his time in Scotland, Sir Alex successfully broke the duopoly of Celtic FC and Glasgow Rangers FC, helping Aberdeen FC win multiple Scottish League and Cup titles before taking the Manchester United job in 1986.
Alex Ferguson won a humongous 37 titles with the Red Devils, to help establish them as one of the best teams in England, and himself as one of the greatest coaches to manage in the beautiful game.
He was able to manage some of the greatest players to play for Manchester United, transitioning seamlessly from the era of Cantona, Keane, and Schmeichel to Ronaldo, Rooney, and Van Persie across nearly three decades at Old Trafford.
Ferguson’s greatest moment came in 1999 when Manchester United won the treble of Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, completing it with a dramatic 2-1 injury-time comeback against Bayern Munich in the final at Camp Nou, a night that cemented his place as the greatest football coach of all time.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 for his services to football and retired in May 2013, leaving behind a record of 49 trophies that no manager in the history of football has come close to matching since.
For more on the greatest coaches in the sport, check out our list of the best football coaches in the world right now, our guide to the greatest soccer coaches of all time, and our article on the most decorated footballers ever.
