Following the sack of Maurizio Sarri as Juventus head coach and appointment of Adrea Pirlo as the new manager. FreshPage found out there are now eight ex-players who are currently managing the affairs of their former teams.
Andrea Pirlo
Andrea Pirlo became manager of Juventus hours after former manager of the club was eliminated from Champions League by French Club, Olympic Lyon. Pirlo who began his career as attacking midfielder as won many coveted trophies in the world of soccer. He had 119 appearances for Juventus between 2011 and 2015, scored 16 goals.
Hans-Dieter Flick
Hans-Dieter Flick was ex-player of Bayern Munich, he is currently the manager of the since Niko Kovac left the club by mutual consent in 2019.
Flick was a midfielder for Bayern Munich before becoming the head coach; he played 104 matches for the club and scored five goals for a career than span for 5 years.
Following the renewal of his contract in April, 2020, Flick will remain in Allianz Arena till 2023. He has won 2019/2020 German Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal for Bayern Munich.
Diego Pablo Simeone Gonzalez
Diego Pablo Simeone Gonzalez is another ex-player of club who is currently managing the club he has played for. He is currently manager of Atletico Madrid. He is spending his 9th year as the manager of Atletico Madro. He is unarguably one of the longest service managers in the history of La-Liga. Simeone has won La-Liga, the Copa del Rey, two UEFA Europa Leagues and two UEFA Super Cups for Atletico Madrid. Unfortunately, he was eliminated in the prestigious UEFA Champions League final twice by arch rival, Real Madrid.
Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta is currently the manager of Arsenal football club. Though, he had his longest career as player at Everton where he played 162 matches for the Merseyside club. He played for Arsenal from 2011 to 2016 before he retired from football.
Upon his retirement, he joined Manchester City as Assistant Head to Pep Guardiola and later appointed by Arsenal football club in 2019, he contracted deadly coronavirus which made English FA suspended Premier League, he won 2019/2020 FA Cup by defeating Chelsea.
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane is a household name in modern football for his unrivaled achievement as footballer and as manager. Zidane played for Real Madrid and scored miraculous goal for the team in 2001 UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Leverkusen. He has won World Cup as a player. He has won UEFA Champions League as a player and as manager for three times. He won FIFA Ballon d’Or in 1998. Zidane who had resigned his appointment as Manager of Real Madrid in 2018 returned back to the club in 2019. Since his return, he has won La-Liga and Supercopa de Espana title for the Real Madrid.
Simone Inzaghi
Simone Inzaghi is another wonderful ex-player currently managing the affairs of his former club. Simone was the younger brother of Filippo Inzaghi who had an amazing career with AC Milan.
Simone Inzaghi is currently the manager of SS Lazio football club of Italy. Inzaghi was first appointed as manager of the senior team of Lazio following the sack of Stefano Pioli in 2016.
His career as manager of Italian giant club received boost when Marcelo Bielsa replaced him for the 2016-2017 voluntarily left the club for an undisclosed reasons.
Inzaghi has defeated Juventus twice at the Supercoppa Italiana in 2017-2018 season by 3 goals to 2. He defeated Juventus also in December 2019 with 3-1 victory over Juventus.
He is unarguably one of the managers that gave Juventus tough time to win all the Serie A title.
Frank James Lampard
Frank James Lampard, one of the greatest Chelsea players of all time is currently managing his former club as head coach. Lampard became all-time Chelsea’s highest goal scorer with 211 goals. As player, he won three Premier League titles with the London Club, four FA Cups, one UEFA Champions League and host of others.
Prior his appointment as Chelsea head coach, he worked as manager of Derby County, a Championship Club, a lower Division Club to Premier League for three years. His appointment as Chelsea manager was confirmed on July 4, 2019 for a three year contract. He has been eliminated from UEFA Champions League following a 7-1 aggregate defeat by Bayern Munich.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a player and now manager of Manchester United. Solskjaer spent most of his football career with Manchester United. He scored the last minute goal for Manchester United in UEFA Champions League Final in 1999 against Bayern Munich.
Solskjaer was first appointed as caretaker manager following a poor performance of Jose Mourinho as Red Devils coach for the rest of the year 20188/2019.
Following his superb performance as caretaker coach having won 14 matches out 19 in-charge, he was offered a three-year contract as manager of Manchester United.
As a player, he won six Premier League cups with Manchester United, 2 FA Cups, one UEFA Champions League and host of others.
