3 managers who have won major trophies with small clubs
In football, the manager’s job is of great importance. Not only is he entrusted with the job of devising the strategy of his team, he also has to pick the correct set of players and make necessary changes during the course of the match.
He also has the responsibility of honing young talents, and developing them into great players. He also typically carries the weight of expectation of millions of club supporters.
However, every club does not boast of great financial clout and massive support. The smaller clubs often develop talents only to see them being lured away by the bigger ones.
It is a matter of great honour for a small club to even come close to winning a major silverware. The lion’s share of the major trophies are won by top clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, AC Milan, Juventus, etc.
Still, there have been a few managers who have won major trophies with small clubs. We are going to discuss 3 such people in this article.
#1 Jose Mourinho (FC Porto)
Mourinho achieved the impossible by winning the UEFA Champions League with FC Porto in the 2003-04 season. He had had a stint as an interpreter with FC Barcelona prior to that, and put that experience to maximum use for the Portuguese club.
Porto beat Monaco 3-0 in the final, and prior to that, they had beaten Manchester United in the knock-out rounds.
Mourinho built a solid squad at Porto which comprised of some of the players from the golden generation of Portugal, like Vitor Baia, and some young talents like Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira.
Porto also had Deco, who was a vital player in the midfield. Porto were very solid defensively, as all teams coached by Jose Mourinho typically are. They conceded only 4 goals in the knockout rounds of the Champions League that season.
Mourinho went to Chelsea the following season, and took players like Carvalho and Ferreira with him. He went on to achieve even greater heights in his managerial career, but the journey of The Special One started at FC Porto.