Guardiola, Klopp, Mourinho: Greatest Champions League managers by PPG

Which manager will lift the Champions League trophy this season?

With top coaches such as Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Diego Simeone, Carlo Ancelotti and more all scrapping it out to get their hands on ‘Big Ears’ this season, it’s fair to say that we’ve got an exciting few months ahead.

Besides, not only does Europe’s premier competition in the men’s game attract the finest players, but also the greatest coaches with the sport’s tactical minds keen to test themselves on the biggest club stage of all.

And while you don’t need to be a Champions League winner to be regarded amongst the finest managers to set foot in the technical area, it’s certainly a great way to solidify your status in the beautiful game.

After all, the example of Roberto Di Matteo conquering the continent with Chelsea in 2012 is certainly a rare one in that coaches who lift ‘Big Ears’ tend to also be amongst their generation’s top coaches.

You only have to look at the way that Champions League glory skyrocketed the careers of Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique to see that winning the competition can be like finding a golden ticket.

Now, in terms of the 2021/22 season, we’re still some way away from finding out who will be ruling European football with victory at the Stade de France, so let’s take a more historic perspective on things.

In fact, the star-studded roster of managers who have shone in the Champions League was so dizzying that a key question couldn’t help coming to mind: who is the greatest of the greats?

And while, yes, a subjective debate about that very question could go on for hours and hours, the joy of statistics is that they tend to point to one answer and one answer only.

At least, that’s the theory as we turned to the