Journalists of FourFourTwo (one of the most important sports magazines in the world) compiled the TOP-100 best football coaches in history. Three technicians from Romania are also among those who were placed in the place of honor.

The FourFourTwo hierarchy starts with Roy Hodgson at 100, followed by Fatih Terim (99), Vaclav Jezek (98), Roberto Mancini (97) and Gerard Houllier (96).

Mircea Lucescu, 87th place

A little further, on the 87th place, we find the first coach from Romania, who entered the hierarchy of the best technicians in the history of football.

We are talking about Mircea Lucescu, a coach who spent his career in such teams as Corvinul, Dynamo, Brescia, Rapid, Inter Milan, Galatasaray, Besiktas, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit, the Turkish national team and Dynamo Kyiv.

“Lucescu is a legend of Shakhtar. He is our teacher not only in football, but also in life in general”, – Dario Srna, former player of Croatia.

“Srna was not exaggerating at all: Lucescu often encouraged his cosmopolitan teams to study, read, learn foreign languages ​​and take cooking lessons. The Romanian coach won 13 titles in Europe, including the UEFA Cup, and made Shakhtar a strong force in Ukraine,” the quoted source said.

Emerich Yenei, 63rd place

At 24 places higher we find Emerich Yenei, the coach who won the European Cup with Steaua Bucharest in 1986.

“In the six previous seasons of the Champions Cup, Steaua never went beyond the first round. Under Jenei, the team went all the way, becoming the first team from Eastern Europe to lift the trophy in 1986 after defeating Barcelona in the final,” the quoted source said when referring to Emerich Jenei.

“He brought Romania back to the World Cup after 20 years (without Italy in 1990) and then sent England home in 2000 (without the European Championship),” writes FourFourTwo.

Stefan Kovacs, 62nd place

Finally, one place above Jenei we find Štefan Kovacs.

“Ajax’s glory years began with Rinus Michels, but history often forgets Kovac, the Romanian who followed him. Kovac gave a lot of freedom on the pitch to his best players, especially Johan Cruyff and Pete Keizer.

The reward was two Champions Cups won in a row, as well as two more titles in Holland (1972, 1973).

He remains the only foreign coach in the history of the French national team and the man who laid the foundations of the Clairefontaine Academy,” writes FourFourTwo about Stephane Kovacs.

TOP-10 best football coaches in history

1 Sir Alex Ferguson

2 Rinus Michels

3 Johan Cruyff

4 Bill Shankly

5 Pep Guardiola

6 Arrigo Sacchi

7 Matt Busby

8 Elenio Herrera

9 Ernst Happel

10 Valery Lobanovskyi