Power Ranking FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men's Football 2015 Contenders
The FIFA World Coach of the Year has been an award handed out at the Ballon d’Or ceremony for each of the past five years, with Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Vicente Del Bosque, Jupp Heynckes and Joachim Low taking the honours so far.
Who’ll win it this time around, though?
With FIFA having announced the 10 contenders, let’s power rank them on just how they are faring right now, and their chances of taking home the award.
10. Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid, Sacked in May)
1 of 10
Following a 2014/15 season in which they finished second in La Liga, were knocked out of the Champions League at the semi-finals stage, only reached the last 16 of the Copa Del Rey and even lost the Spanish Super Cup final, Carlo Ancelotti was sacked by Real Madrid in May, a year after he won the Champions League.
Such is the way at the Santiago Bernabeu, of course, so the currently out-of-work Italian is a somewhat surprising inclusion on this shortlist even if there is no doubt about the three-time European champion’s pedigree.
Most recently linked with the Liverpool job before it was taken on by Jurgen Klopp—via various publications including the Daily Mirror—Ancelotti is believed to be biding his time before he returns to football as he recovers from a back operation.
We might not see him on the touchline again until next season, and while whoever takes him on will be bringing in a fantastic manager with a strong track record of success, that success certainly won’t include the title of 2015’s FIFA Coach of the Year.
9. Unai Emery (Sevilla)
2 of 10
Sevilla’s dominance of the Europa League has now become legendary, with the Andalusians having now won the competition four times—more than any other club in history.
The more recent two of those victories have come in the last two seasons under Unai Emery, who lifted his second European title when Sevilla beat Dnipro 3-2 in an enthralling final in Warsaw in May, when Carlos Bacca’s two strikes helped the Spanish side create European history.
The loss of Bacca and other key players has made this campaign somewhat more difficult for Emery, who has seen his team placed in a tricky Champions League group alongside Manchester City and Juventus from which a demotion back to the Europa League looks a distinct possibility.
Domestic highlights include a home victory over Barcelona, but Emery won’t yet feel as though he’s entitled to rub shoulders with some of the elite names on this list until he’s made a consistent impact on the Champions League; something that Sevilla fans might have to be patient for.
8. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)
3 of 10
His stock has fallen dramatically during what has been a startlingly bad beginning to the 2015/16 season, but it mustn’t be forgotten that Jose Mourinho and Chelsea lifted two trophies in this calendar year.
First came the Capital One Cup following a 2-0 victory over Tottenham at Wembley, but most impressive of all was the Premier League title clinched by eight points from second-placed Manchester City.
Mourinho ruthlessly drilled his players as they lost just three times in the league over the 2014/15 campaign, and never once in a home match at Stamford Bridge.
The Portuguese coach used his uniquely special blend of tactical acumen, force of personality and intimidation to guide his team and mould them into a winning unit, with the 52-year-old receiving his third Premier League Manager of the Year award at the end of the campaign.
This season, though, the wheels have fallen off the Chelsea machine.
Their worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign sees them residing in 15th place in the table following a staggering five defeats in 10 games, although it would be a huge surprise if Mourinho doesn’t turn things around soon.
7. Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus)
4 of 10
At the beginning of the 2014/15 season, few would have thought that it was possible to lead Juventus to a first Champions League final in 12 years, but Massimiliano Allegri achieved it.
With the club having suffered a relegation as a result of the Calciopoli scandal since that last appearance in European football’s showpiece event at Old Trafford in 2003, Allegri guided a team featuring Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez past the likes of Borussia Dortmund and, famously, Real Madrid and into the final against Barcelona in Berlin.
Once there, they lost 3-1, with Allegri unable to add European glory to his side’s Serie A and Coppa Italia achievements, but it was still a stunning season for Italian football’s Old Lady.
The loss of the three players mentioned above has been a factor in what has been a below-par start to the 2015/16 season for a Juventus side currently residing in the bottom half of Serie A, but under the studious and talented Allegri, it shouldn’t be long before they bounce back to look more like their old selves.
6. Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
5 of 10
One of the best and brightest of a new generation of coaches to have emerged in Europe over the past few years, Diego Simeone was unable to match 2014’s highs of La Liga success and a Champions League final this year, but he has continued to make his Atletico Madrid side one of the very best to watch in world football.
Atletico finished third in La Liga in 2014/15 as they succumbed to the powers of Barcelona and Real Madrid, and with this season shaping up to be a similarly tough fight for Simeone and his team, the Argentinian is showing no signs of not being up for the challenge.
Developing players who have been at Atletico for years and intelligently buying new ones have been recurring themes of Simeone’s time at the Vicente Calderon, and with plenty of the more traditional superpowers of the world game no doubt looking at his situation in the Spanish capital closely, it will be interesting to see just where his future lies.
5. Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)
6 of 10
Having won back-to-back FA Cups and with his side going well at the top end of the Premier League, Arsene Wenger is experiencing something of a renaissance as the veteran Arsenal manager surpasses 19 years in charge in North London.
The 66-year-old has assembled a stylish, creative side packed with talents such as Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla, all of whom shone as the Gunners won the second of those consecutive FA Cups with a 4-0 hammering of Aston Villa at Wembley in May.
With the way this Premier League season is shaping up, there is real hope at the Emirates Stadium that the Gunners can mount a serious assault on what would be Wenger’s first league title in 12 years this time around. If he can do that, then he could well find himself higher up in this reckoning when it comes to being decided in 2016.
4. Laurent Blanc (Paris Saint-Germain)
7 of 10
March’s Champions League success at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge could well be viewed at Paris Saint-Germain’s breakthrough result in the competition—the time when the rest of the continent stood up and took notice of them.
In that regard, they were somewhat unfortunate to come up against a rampant Barcelona in the quarter-finals, but PSG coach Laurent Blanc still had some staggering domestic success to look back on in 2014/15.
Put simply, Blanc’s side won everything it was possible for them to win in France last season.
They lifted the Trophee des Championes (Super Cup) with a 2-0 win over Guingamp, the League Cup thanks to a 4-0 hammering of Bastia, the French Cup by beating second-tier Auxerre 1-0 in the final and the Ligue 1 title by eight points from second-placed Lyon.
Blanc’s men have started this season on fire, too, leading Ligue 1 and making good progress in their Champions League group.
It remains to be seen whether they can make another great leap forward in that competition, but under Blanc, PSG appear to be in good hands.
3. Jorge Sampaoli (Chile)
8 of 10
Appointed as Chile coach in late 2012, there was always a real sense that Argentinian Jorge Sampaoli was building towards the country hosting the Copa America in 2015—and so it proved.
A 55-year-old former coach of several clubs in South America, including O’Higgins, Emelec and Universidad de Chile, Sampaoli was able to harness the passion of the host nation and lead them to a first-ever Copa America title in early July, when they beat Argentina on penalties in the final in a fervent Santiago.
Chile only conceded one goal in their three knockout stages matches, as their success was based on solid defence and a powerful attack featuring Alexis Sanchez and the tournament’s joint-top goalscorer, Eduardo Vargas.
The win has made Sampaoli and his players national heroes, and they’ve followed up the success with victories in their first two 2018 World Cup qualifiers earlier this month—2-0 at home to Brazil and 4-3 in Peru.
2. Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich)
9 of 10
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich only won the Bundesliga title by 10 points in 2014/15, and, if anything, that was something of a disappointment for them.
Still to win the Champions League with the German giants, Guardiola saw his side knocked out at the semi-final stages of the competition by his beloved Barcelona, while they also bowed out in the semi-finals of the German Cup when they lost on penalties to Borussia Dortmund.
Seeking to make up for those losses—and powered by the goals of the remarkable Robert Lewandowski—Bayern have started this season on fire.
They’ve won all 10 of their Bundesliga matches to open up a seven-point lead on Dortmund already, and with many claiming the league title is won already, Guardiola could be considered free to plot Champions League success.
If he can do that and lift the trophy, then he will have to be considered a front-runner to win this award when it is handed out in 2016, when he could add to one he won as Barca coach in 2011.
1. Luis Enrique (Barcelona)
10 of 10
Only once before in Barcelona’s storied history did they achieve the type of success they enjoyed in the 2014/15 season, and for that reason, Luis Enrique surely deserves to be honoured as FIFA’s Coach of the Year above the rest of the contenders on the shortlist.
Following on from their 2008/09 treble under Pep Guardiola, Barca won the Champions League, La Liga and the Copa Del Rey as they swept all before them in Enrique’s first season in charge.
The Copa Del Rey was secured thanks to a 3-1 win over Athletic Bilbao in the final at the Camp Nou, two weeks after the Liga title was claimed courtesy of a 1-0 victory at Atletico Madrid.
The cherry on a particularly sweet cake was to follow in Berlin, though, as goals from Ivan Rakitic, Luis Suarez and Neymar earned the 3-1 victory over Juventus which gave Barca their fifth Champions League crown.
This season has started well, too, with 21 points from nine games placing Enrique’s men joint top of the league table alongside rivals Real Madrid—the perfect spot from which to mount another challenge.
