Right, so, managers tend not to be great players do they? With the exception of your Pep Guardiolas and Luis Enriques, who won just about everything under the sun, most of them were as useful as a chocolate teapot when playing.
Some world-class coaches strike us as the sort of chaps, whose parents were told; “your son has a lot of heart”, by their Sunday League manager. Which translates to, ‘they’re more useful as far away from the pitch, as Roy Hodgson is from the English national side’.
Here are nine prime examples of managers whose playing careers were pretty awful…
Luiz Felipe Scolari
I've honestly never heard of some of the teams the Brazilian has played for. Somehow Scolari made his career last eight years with the likes of Caxias, Juventude and Novo Hamburgo, and he was known among his peers as "perna-de-pau" a.k.a "wooden leg" which is Brazilian for bad player. Phenomenal.
Source: Goal
Rafael Benitez
As the Spaniard attempts to revive his managerial career at Newcastle, he may want the world to forget about how absolutely tosh his playing days were. In all fairness though, the main highlight was playing for Real Madrid for seven years - Real Madrid Castilla, that is.
Source: Getty Images
Arsene Wenger
This one seems almost predictable given his praying mantis figure and overall attitude. Wenger's defining moment came with making a grand total of 11 first team appearances for RC Strasbourg over the course of a three-year tenure. It's the taking part that counts and all that.
Source: Telegraph
Jose Mourinho
One of the best managers in the world? Yes. One of the most pointless Portuguese footballers in history? More than likely, yeah. Mourinho made less than 100 pro appearances throughout his seven year career as he fell down the footballing pyramid with the likes of Rio Ave and Belenenses.
Source: Getty Images
Guus Hiddink
Right, so I get that Hiddink played for PSV for a brief period of time, but he was fairly shocking. He bounced around a number of Dutch teams before having a few brief stints in America with the likes of the Washington Diplomats, eventually ending his career with a third stint at De Graafschap. Great.
Source: You Tube
Marcello Lippi
Lippi is a bloody marvelous manager, and to be fair his playing days were better than most on this list. He spent 10 years at Sampdoria before moving to a couple sides that sound more like Italian cuisines than football sides, winning barely any silverware in the process. Shame.
Source: Bet News
Tony Pulis
Prepare to be thoroughly impressed. Bristol Rovers, Happy Valley, Bristol Rovers again, Newport County, Bournemouth, Gillingham, then Bournemouth again. Scintillating stuff, and yes, Happy Valley are actually a real team, over in Hong Kong. At least he won the third division with the Cherries, though.
Source: Alchetron
Sven Goran-Eriksson
By all accounts it seems like Sven was absolutely useless when it came to playing football, highlighted by his time in the Swedish lower leagues. He may well be well remembered for the likes of Torsby IF and Vastra Frolunda IF, but we imagine that was more because he resembled Bambi on ice.
Source: Telegraph
Walter Mazzarri
It looks as if someone just bashed on a keyboard with half of these teams. Mazzarri never made more than 100 appearances for any of his 11 clubs, and his best days were most definitely reserved for his time on the touchline as has been the case with all of the gentlemen on this list.
Source: WD Sport
Start the discussion
Login to comment