Football Legend Players Who Have Successfully Coached His Club In The Past

Frank Lampard, who was once an important player for Chelsea, is now officially coaching the London club. Lampard works behind the scenes, no longer the main character on the field. The player who grew up in the West Ham United academy returned with a year of coaching experience at Derby County.

When he returns to Stamford Bridge, big hopes will accompany Lampard's comeback to the club he loves. Super Frank's 13 years of dedication at Stamford Bridge have a strong impression on the minds and hearts of club lovers.

Now, he only has to prove that his capacity as a coach is able to bring prestigious trophies, like what he did when he was a player.

The Lampard phenomenon is clearly not the first. There are already many legendary players who have returned to their former clubs as coaches. In fact, not a few of them have also successfully contributed titles when acting as team tacticians.

As in the discussion of the starting eleven this time, we will review the legendary players who have successfully coached their former clubs.

Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid)

Zinedine Zidane only presented one La Liga title and one Champions League trophy during his five seasons at Real Madrid as a player. He returned to Los Blancos as special advisor in November 2010 and became sporting director less than a year later.

Zidane, who had been assistant coach to Carlo Ancelotti, was appointed manager of Real Madrid B in 2014. Two years later Zidane was finally appointed coach of Real Madrid.

During managing el Real, Zidane successfully presented three Champions League titles in a row. He then stepped down at the end of the 2017/18 season.

However, Real Madrid then experienced a crisis when it was handled by Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari. Zidane was finally asked to return to coach Real Madrid in March 2019.

Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)

Diego Simeone is now one of the greatest coaches in the world. His return to the Los Rojiblancos camp as a successful coach made the club feared in the world.

Until now, Simeone is still devoting all his ability to train Atletico that he has been defending for two periods. Simeone has been recorded as having coached Atletico since 2011.

Within nine years, he has won many trophies, and among them are La Liga and the Europa League. Simeone really turned Atletico into a tough team that broke Barcelona and Real Madrid's hegemony in La Liga.

Roberto Di Matteo (Chelsea)

Roberto Di Matteo played for Chelsea from 1996 to 2002, and won 2 FA Cup titles, 1 League Cup and 1 UEFA Super Cup.

He joined the Chelsea coaching staff starting in 2011 as assistant coach to Andre Villas-Boas. After Villas-Boas was sacked by Chelsea, he immediately replaced him as the main coach.

In 2012, he and Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time in the club's history, after beating FC Bayern in the final. Apart from the Champions League, he also won the FA Cup title.

Antonio Conte (Juventus)

Antonio Conte strengthened Juventus for 13 years from 1991 to 2004. He managed to get various titles ranging from domestic to international trophies, namely 5 Serie A titles, 1 Coppa Italia, 1 Champions League title and 1 UEFA Cup, and 1 Intercontinental Cup.

While recovering as a giant team, Juventus recruited Antonio Conte as a coach in 2011, and lasted until 2016 before being recruited by Chelsea. During his 5 years coaching at Juventus, Conte won 3 Serie A titles and 1 Italian Super Cup.

The Italian coach was like an early marker of Juventus' resurrection, after falling after the calciopoli case.

Carlo Ancelotti (AC Milan)

Throughout his career as a player, Ancelotti only strengthened three clubs, namely Parma, AS Roma and AC Milan.

Carlo Ancelotti gained success with AS Roma and AC Milan with a total of three Scudetto titles, as well as titles in European competitions, and one International Cup title in 1989 with AC Milan.

As a manager, Ancelotti is trusted to manage big clubs, including Juventus and AC Milan. When training a team from the city of Milan, Ancelotti was very successful. The reason is, he managed to donate two Champions League trophies for the team he has defended.

Pep Guardiola (FC Barcelona)

Pep Guardiola is synonymous with a manager who likes possession football. Every club he manages is transformed into a strong team with short passes.

Starting his coaching career with Barcelona B, he was promoted to coach Barcelona seniors. Apart from his intelligence, Barcelona has quality players. He managed to win a trophy with Barcelona.

When managing FC Barcelona, Guardiola, who in fact had defended the club as a player, successfully contributed a historic title. At that time, the Spanish coach successfully won six prestigious titles in one season.

Luis Enrique (FC Barcelona)

Luis Enrique has arguably achieved his best success as a player while strengthening Barcelona. He won two league titles and a number of competitions, after making a controversial move from Real Madrid.

After retiring from matches in 2004, he took charge of Barcelona B after Guardiola was promoted to the top position. After officially becoming the main coach of el Barca in 2014, Enrique's work deserves thumbs up.

In his first season he also managed to bring the Blaugrana to a treble winner like Guardiola. During his three career seasons with Barcelona, he won nine trophies before finally retiring from Camp Nou in 2017.

Currently, Enrique is listed as the coach of the Spanish national team.