4 footballers who made their professional and managerial debut with the same club
It is a norm rather than an oddity for players to return to their former clubs to take up managerial roles nowadays.
And the track record for former players taking over the responsibilities of a gaffer has been propitious. Famous personalities like Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and in the recent years Antonio Conte and Zinedine Zidane have shown that former players are more than up to the task of leading the club from the sidelines as well.
In professional football, there is no bigger honour for a player than being named as the head coach of the very club where he developed his instincts, honed his skills and turned from a mere youth prospect into a future star.
Seldom does any player gets the opportunity to commence his journey as a manager, at the same club where he made his professional debut.
With the recent appointment of Thierry Henry at the helm of affairs at his youth club AS Monaco, here we take a look at the 4 footballers who made their professional debut and managerial debut with the same club.
#4 Jupp Heynckes
Josef "Jupp" Heynckes, who is quite well known for his managerial stints with Bayern Munich, made his debut as a player and a manager in the Bundesliga, but not with the Bavarians.
It was his hometown club Borussia Monchengladbach, with whom he would go on to take the first steps into his professional career first as a player in 1964 and then as a manager in 1979.
He was an excellent striker who won the Bundesliga title 4 times with his hometown club and would go on to become the third highest goalscorer in Bundesliga history with 220 goals.
After announcing his retirement he stayed with the club, initially working as an assistant manager and then after one year made his professional managerial debut for the club.
Though he didn't have the same kind of success during his time as the manager of the club as he had as a player, the experience that he gained at his hometown club would prove as a stepping stone for the two-time Champions League winning manager.