Pele, Maradona, Messi. We can all reel off countless names of players who led their national sides to glory at World Cups over the decades – although ask most football fans to name the man in the dugout for those wins and the answers likely dry up.
International managers traditionally spend more time in the shadows and aside from a select number of bosses, keep a lower profile outside of their country than the stars on the pitch.
Yet if the build-up to the 2026 World Cup is anything to go by, that’s changing and the fascination with the head coaches in the club game is spilling over into the international arena.
There have been plenty of big names in posts around the globe before, but this year feels different. This isn’t necessarily the most decorated set of managers a World Cup has assembled, but it may be the first whose pre-tournament narrative is being shaped so heavily by the men on the touchline.
It’s mainly led by three of club football’s supercoaches entering the fray, with Messrs Ancelotti, Tuchel and Pochettino upping the ante. For three giants of the club game to have taken big jobs away from their own nations all at once is a significant shift, offering an extra layer of intrigue to the tournament.
The trio have forged distinct brands for themselves in an era when the elite managers have wrestled the headlines away from the top players with increasing regularity. So for three of the most recognisable to take national team jobs at a time when their stocks are still high is a significant statement.
There have been big names at a World Cup before, of course. In 2010, four former European Cup-winning bosses were in posts in the shape of Fabio Capello, Marcelo Lippi, Vicente Del Bosque and Ottmar Hitzfeld, although they were all several years past their greatest moments in the club game.
Three of the four of them were over 60 (with Del Bosque completing the set later that same year) and never went on to take another big club job. This time, that seems unlikely – even if Ancelotti has recently turned 66.
In 2026, this international odyssey feels like another stop in building on already impressive records. For Tuchel and Pochettino, in particular, it’s less of a final act and more another step to whatever comes next.
For Don Carlo, a World Cup win would set a new bar for a manager aiming to complete the ultimate managerial CV. If he were to achieve that, it would surely add more motivation for the others to follow in the future, with Pep Guardiola already touted for possible international jobs, even prior to his Manchester City exit.
Whether Pep would adapt to the more hands-off nature of international football is another question entirely, with less time with the players likely to starve his methods.
It’s a problem many managers who have enjoyed prior success domestically have found difficult to contend with when adapting to the international game. And it could be proved again this summer that the big three struggle to have the impact their lofty reputations suggest they should.
If they do, it could leave the door open for two more coaches to walk through. France’s Didier Deschamps and Argentina’s Lionel Scaloni will also receive their own share of the limelight should they reach the latter stages with both having a realistic shot at making history.
No manager other than Vittorio Pozzo has won more than one World Cup in nearly a century of the tournament being played and he achieved that with Italy way back in the 1930s with more than a mild whiff of controversy around those wins due to the involvement of fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
It makes for a host of gripping narratives that all revolve around the men in their nations’ hotseat, meaning 2026 could truly become known as the World Cup of the manager.
Move over Messi, the coaches are coming.
