5 Real Madrid players who became successful managers
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The world of football is highly volatile, and many a players have learnt it the hard way that becoming a successful manager is not an easy cup of tea. Often the best players of a certain era fail drastically when they take up the job at the other end of the pitch.
The opposite is also true, players who were not fancied during their time have gone on to become great coaches and won numerous titles working on the pitch side. Real Madrid are one of the most famous and most successful clubs in the world and the Los Blancos have not only given platforms to some superstar players, but have also provided us with some great managers over the years.
With that in mind, we take a look into the best Real Madrid players who became successful managers later on.
Real Madrid players who became successful managers
Zinedine Zidane
Real Madrid’s most recent coach, Zinedine Zidane was one of the best footballers of his time and later went onto enhance his reputation further by becoming a champion coach for Los Blancos. As a player for Real Madrid, he spent 5 seasons at the club and made 249 appearances.
He won the Champions League in 2001-02 scoring that wondrous goal in the final. He returned to the club in 2015 and was an instant success as he led the club to 3 consecutive Champions League titles and became the first coach in history to do so from 2016-18. He also won the La Liga title on his return spell in 2020 when the club was undergoing a period of change following the departure of key players.
Julen Lopetegui
Julen Lopetegui, the former Barcelona and Real Madrid goalkeeper is currently the coach of La Liga club Sevilla. He played for the Los Blancos from 1988-91 and made a single appearance for them. He started his coaching career as a youth coach for the Spanish national side and his big break came as he was handed the job of managing the senior squad in 2015 following Spain’s dubbing the World Cup.
He led the side for 3 years but was ultimately sacked before the World Cup as he had signed a contract with Real Madrid. However, the job lasted only 2 months after some underwhelming results at his former club. He went on to lift the Europa League with Sevilla in 2020.
Rafael Benitez
While Rafael Benitez never really polayed for the senior Real Madrid team, he was however a player at the club in the junior levels and thus joins the list of Los Blancos players who went on to become managers later. He returned to the club as a coach in 2015 as a manager with a huge reputation to his name. He had already managed the likes of Valencia, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Chelsea in his previous spells. He also won the Champions League title with Liverpool and led Valencia to 2 La Liga titles in 2001 and 2003. he is currently employed at Everton and was appointed this summer.
Vicente Del Bosque
Spain’s World Cup-winning coach in 2010, is also a Real Madrid legend, having previously played for the club during the 1960s and 70s. His career as a player lasted over 16 years and the midfielder played a total of 441 games for the club scoring 31 goals. He is regarded as one of the best players to have played at Real Madrid and also went onto become a very famous manager at the club later on. He won the Champions League twice in the 1999-00 and 2001-02 season to bring the club back into the European radar and also delivered 2 La Liga titles 2000-01 and 2002-03. His biggest achievement as a football coach came in 2010 when he won the World Cup with Spain and also went onto win the EURO Cup in 2012.
Michael Laudrup
Michael Laudrup is one of the players who have the distinction of having played for Spain’s 2 biggest rivals – Barcelona and Real Madrid. He signed for the Los Blancos from the Catalan side in a controversial move in 1994 and stayed on at the club for the next two years before moving to Japan. Mostly played as an attacking midfielder, the Danish player made a total of 76 appearances for the club and scored 15 goals in them. After his retirement, he made the move into coaching and enjoyed significant successes at most of his clubs. His first major title came in 2004-05 when he won the Danish Superliga with Brondby. He won a total of 8 trophies as a manager.
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