The 13 managers in football history to win 3+ European trophies: Unai Emery above Guardiola, Ferguson… | OneFootball

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has some legendary company when it comes to winning European silverware.

He’s one of just 13 managers who have won three or more official UEFA club competitions, with Aston Villa’s triumph in the 2026 Europa League final the fifth time he’s got his hands on the trophy. He’s ahead of some footballing royalty when it comes to the total number of European trophies lifted.

Here are the 13 managers who have won three or more European honours.

Note: We haven’t included the Super Cup, nor the not-UEFA-affiliated old Fairs Cup. Where managers are tied overall, we’re using Champions League trophies as a trump card in the ranking.

13. Udo Lattek – 3

1 x Cup Winners’ Cup, 1 x UEFA Cup, 1 x European Cup

One of only two men in history to complete the old ‘big three’ of UEFA’s original cross-continental cup competitions, the legendary German manager – ranked 30th in France Football’s 2019 ranking of the best of all time – won countless honours in the 1970s and 1980s.

As well as the eight Bundesliga titles he won with Bayern Munich and Borussia Monchengladbach, he led the former to their first European Cup (the first of their historic threepeat) in 1974, and the latter to the UEFA Cup five years later.

Lattek also won the Cup Winners’ Cup with Barcelona in 1982, masterminding a 2-1 victory over Standard Liege in the final.

12. Johan Cruyff – 3

2 x Cup Winners’ Cup, 1 x European Cup

After enjoying immense success as a player with both Ajax and Barcelona, he repeated the trick from the dugout.

Before he went on to become the architect of everything we now associate Barcelona with, he led Ajax to the 1987 Cup Winners’ Cup, in which a young Marco van Basten scored the match-winner against Lokomotiv Leipzig in the final. Different times.

He won the same trophy a couple of years later as Barcelona manager. He later led the club to an unprecedented four successive La Liga titles, capping off that golden era with the European Cup in 1992.

Not only did he have an inquantifiable influence on football, but he boasted the silverware to back it up. You can see where the Guardiola comparisons come from.

11. Rafael Benitez  – 3

2 x UEFA Cup/Europa League, 1 x Champions League

Rafa set sail for Merseyside in 2004, fresh from capping off his exceptional stint as Valencia manager with the UEFA Cup.

He emulated his old rival Jose Mourinho in immediately winning the big one the following season, albeit with a different club.

Chelsea’s 2013 Europa League trophy goes a little under the radar in the wider context of his career. Classic Roman Abramovich era: chopping and changing managers, chaos and turmoil behind the scenes, but still silverware remained a constant.

10. Jose Villalonga – 3

2 x European Cup, 1 x Cup Winners’ Cup

The manager when Real Madrid boasted the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Francisco Gento and Raymond Kopa.

He was in charge when Los Blancos won the inaugural European Cup in 1956 and remained at the helm when they retained it the following year, although he’d left by the time they added a third, fourth and fifth.

Villalonga subsequently took up a job at their cross-city rivals Atletico, with whom he beat his former club in back-to-back Copa del Rey finals, and led to the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1962.

He also won the European Championships in 1964.

9. Pep Guardiola – 3

3 x Champions League

Only one man in the history of the European Cup has won more titles than Guardiola, and yet it’s a testament to his immense coaching career that feels an almost underwhelming return.

After the two Champions League titles he won with that era-defining Barcelona side, he finally added a long-awaited third with Manchester City’s 2022-23 treble.

Unlike the vast majority of names in this list, Guardiola has spent his entire career in UEFA’s top competition. Not once has he failed to qualify or dropped into the Europa League.

8. Zinedine Zidane – 3

3 x Champions League

It’s downright daft that Zidane has only served as a head coach for five seasons and yet boasts three Champions League trophies.

He did win a La Liga title in his second season at Real Madrid, but we kind of wish he’d left it at one-and-done with a 100% Champions League success rate from his first stint. The ultimate footballing statement.

We’re still not entirely sure how good of a tactician or coach Zidane is, but his steely charisma and man-management skills made him the perfect fit for that group of proven winners. Will we see the same when he takes charge of France? Watch this space.

7. Nereo Rocco – 4

2 x Cup Winners’ Cup, 2 x European Cup

A tactical visionary of the 1960s, Milan icon Rocco led the club to no fewer than four major European honours. As well as three Coppa Italias, two Scudetti and the Intercontinental Cup.

Arrigo Sacchi, Carlo Ancelotti, and Fabio Capello are all up there, but it’s hard to argue against Rocco being the Rossoneri’s greatest-ever coach.

6. Sir Alex Ferguson – 4

2 x Cup Winners’ Cup, 2 x Champions League

In an entirely fair world, we’d add a couple of bonus points for Aberdeen(!) beating Real Madrid(!!) in a major European final.

He won the same trophy a second time relatively early in his Manchester United tenure, before going on to dominate the first two decades of the Premier League era.

Manchester United won the big one twice, but it might’ve been more. In an alternate world, without Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona, Fergie might well have lifted two more in 2009 and 2011.

5. Bob Paisley – 4

3 x European Cup, 1 x UEFA Cup

“The secret is that our Liverpool team never know when to stop running and working,” explained Paisley when he retired in 1983.

“At Anfield we have always believed in players supporting each other and concentrating on not giving the ball away. You can’t go charging forward all the time, willy-nilly. You must have patience, and this is where we can play the continentals at their own game.”

Three European Cups. One FA Cup. A further six league titles and three League Cups. The most decorated spell in Liverpool history.

4. Unai Emery – 5

5 x Europa League

One of only four managers in history to win five European trophies. A quite ridiculous feat, when you think about it. Especially when you consider that includes the only major title in Villarreal’s history and an Aston Villa side who’d gone 30 years without a major trophy.

Admittedly, Emery probably still has to go and do it at a Champions League level if he’s ever to be considered genuinely elite. His stints at clubs at that level – PSG, Arsenal (he’d be outright top with six if the Gunners beat Chelsea in 2019) – didn’t quite go to plan, but he’s surely earned another shot at the big time. Perhaps he’ll even get there with Villa.

3. Giovanni Trapattoni – 5

3 x UEFA Cup, 1 x European Cup, 1 x Cup Winners’ Cup

Trapattoni won everything there was to win in his playing days with AC Milan. The UEFA Cup was missing from his trophy collection, but that competition was launched the year he left the San Siro – 1972 – shortly before he hung up his boots for good.

An even more ludicrously decorated managerial career then followed. Too many domestic honours to count, including 10 league titles across four top-flight European leagues.

His five European trophies – two UEFA Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup and a European Cup with Juventus, one UEFA Cup with Inter – spanned three decades, beginning in 1976-77 and ending in 1992-93.

Trophies on the table. Very few hold a candle to Trap.

2. Jose Mourinho – 5

2 x Champions League, 2 x UEFA Cup/Europa League, 1 x Conference League

The current-day Trapattoni… As precisely nobody calls him.

Mourinho completed UEFA’s modern-day big three by leading Roma to the inaugural Conference League in 2022. He’s got the trio of trophies tattooed on his bicep.

Surprisingly enough, that’s the only piece of silverware that Mourinho has lifted since 2017. Has he lost his knack, or has he simply made a series of poor career choices? We’re about to find out – with Real Madrid offering him a life raft back to the big time.

And a special mention to Barcelona’s 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup final victory over PSG, in which a young Mourinho served as an assistant to Bobby Robson.

1. Carlo Ancelotti – 5

5 x Champions League

As many Champions League trophies as Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson – two managers who have reasonable arguments to be considered the greatest of all-time – combined. Outrageous. Ridiculous. Surely unsurpassable.

That’s as well as being the only man to have won the league in Italy, England, Germany, Spain and France.

Ancelotti himself would likely concede that others have shaped the game in more profound ways, but when it comes to in-game management of a do-or-die knockout tie or man-managing a dressing room full of world-class talent and monster egos, there’s surely no one better.

Don Carlo also won the Intertoto Cup with Juventus back in 1999. But we’re not counting that; tinpot in comparison to the majesty of ol’ big ears.