Do Former Superstar Players Make Good Managers?

I started thinking about this question again in the wake of some recent comments by Dennis Bergkamp about what’s going on at Arsenal. He stated his views about tactics, a need for a true goal scorer, and Patrick Vieira. Naturally, this led a few writers to wonder if Bergkamp would be a good future manager at Arsenal. (He’s currently an assistant manager at Ajax.)

I know I’m opening myself up for the usual round of criticism I face when I try to share information about North American sports. And I’m going to hear it even more when I try to subjectively assess whether certain people were (or were not) superstar players, and whether they did (or did not) taste success as managers. Anyway, I’m sure the debate will be lively and very civilized, as always.

Ok, well the first thing I’ll say is that I’ve always heard that former superstar players struggle as head coaches/managers. Of course, this theory has been applied to the various North American sports that I follow, and not about soccer. So I’ll start with a few other sports, and then my attentions back to soccer.

The list of former superstar players who have flopped in coaching has been pretty well-documented for many years. One of the earlier examples was former baseball legend Ted Williams, who was particularly poor as a manager. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky missed the postseason during all four of his years as a head coach of Phoenix, and then the team made the playoffs the two years after he left. Former NFL great Mike Singletary was recently fired after three poor years in San Francisco. I could go on and on with other examples over time, but history has generally been unkind to former superstars in the coaching business. Yes, there have been a few exceptions over the years, as there are in everything. But I think the rule has held up most of the time.

Turning our attention back to examples from the soccer world, I had quite a few names to sort through (many of which played and/or managed before I was born). And I’m quite sure I’m overlooking a number of people. Some of those omissions are due to the fact that I didn’t want to spend all day researching, and other omissions are judgment calls. (Perhaps due to the fact that their managerial careers overshadowed their playing careers, I decided to leave off Guardiola, Ancelloti, and Donadoni.) But I’ll give it a shot, starting with the successes. After I complete my list, I’ll give some concluding remarks.

Successes:
Franz Beckenbauer was certainly a superstar in his playing career, appearing for Bayern Munich a whopping 427 times. As a manager, he guided West Germany to the World Cup final in 1986, and then won the WC four years later. He won club titles at Marseille and Bayern after that, and also captured a UEFA Cup in 1996.

Johan Cruyff deserves a spot in this list. I don’t think anyone would dispute his place as a superstar player. But as a manager, he won the Champions League with Barca in 1992, along with four La Liga titles, plus other trophies at Ajax as well.

Kenny Dalglish had a terrific career for both Celtic and Liverpool, and was at Liverpool during one of their most successful periods. While he may not be quite the former superstar that a few others in this list are, I think he belongs here. Anyway, he was first a player-manager at Liverpool, and he won domestic titles there in 1986, 88, and 90. He also guided Blackburn to a Premier League title in 1995. And of course, he’s now back at Liverpool, and many expect him to take them back to the top four. If there’s a flaw on his record, and something that I really feel badly about, it’s the fact that his Liverpool team somehow blew their lead against Arsenal at home on the final day of the season in 1989, allowing Michael Thomas to score at the death.

Frank Rijkaard was a player I’d originally overlooked, but JG told me he’d flog me if I left him out. Well, not quite. Anyway, he had a long and successful career with both Ajax and AC Milan, winning the Champions League and multiple league titles for each. As a manager, he took Barca to back-to-back league titles, and a Champions League title in 2006 that Arsenal fans would rather forget. He also managed Holland at Euro 2000, where his team might have won the title if they knew how to take penalty kicks. Rijkaard is currently in charge of the Saudi Arabian national team.

Mixed results:
Zico was a Brazilian legend who oddly never won a World Cup. However, he did play in three World Cups, and scored 52 goals for Brazil. Most of his playing career was at Flamengo. As a manager, he helped Japan qualify for the 2006 World Cup, while also winning the 2004 Asian Cup. He had success at Fenerbahçe after that, but only stayed for two seasons. Since then, he had mostly poor results for club teams in Uzbekistan, Russia, and Greece.

Ronald Koeman had a terrific playing career that spanned 18 years, spending time at the biggest Dutch clubs, in addition to Barcelona. As a manager, he won two league titles with Ajax, and one with PSV. He’s now the manager of Feyenoord, so he’s made his rounds in Holland as a player and manager. While enjoying a measure of success managing, he’s also been fired from Valencia and AZ Alkmaar.

Alfredo Di Stéfano had a terrific playing career from 1945 to 1966, which included a spell at Real Madrid from 1953-1964. He scored 526 goals in 660 appearances for his club teams. As a manager, he won domestic titles for both Boca Juniors and River Plate during a long coaching career that took him to nine different clubs. If anything, he could possibly be put in the success category, but I’ll leave him in the mixed results category because he never really stayed in one place and dominated.

Kevin Keegan perhaps wasn’t in the same league as a few of the other superstars on this list, but I think he deserves inclusion. As a manager, he took Newcastle to second place in 1996, which is pretty unthinkable today. He had later spells at Fulham, the English national team, Man City (before their cash infusion), and Newcastle again. His results weren’t that great, but you could also argue he didn’t have a lot to work with much of the time as manager.

Jürgen Klinsmann had a decorated club career, but was probably more famous for scoring 47 goals for Germany, and helping them win the 1990 World Cup. You can view one of his World Cup goals here, scored in 1998 in Paris, while yours truly was in attendance. He guided Germany to a third place finish in the 2006 World Cup. He had a short stint at Bayern Munich after that, leading them to the Champions League quarterfinals. He’s currently coaching the U.S. national team.

Marco van Basten should certainly fit the former superstar description, but his managerial results were a mixed bag. He guided Holland to the Round of 16 at the 2006 World Cup, and the quarterfinals of Euro 2008. I wouldn’t label that as a rousing success for a country with the talent they have to choose from. He lasted one year at Ajax, but he resigned after finishing in third place in 2009.

Carlos Alberto Torres is still considered one of the greatest defenders of all time, and captained Brazil to a World Cup title in 1970. To be honest, I couldn’t find much about his managing career, other than the fact that it was mostly for a ton of different clubs, and most of which not glamor jobs.

Ferenc Puskás was well before my time, but his record as a player was amazing. In his club playing career, which included a long stint at Real Madrid, he scored 509 goals in 523 appearances. For Hungary, he scored 84 times in 85 appearances. Whoa. Why isn’t this guy talked about more often as an all-time legend? Anyway, as a manager, he guided Panathanaikos to a Champions League final in 1971, which is the only time a Greek team has made it that far. He managed in numerous “backwater” sorts of places after that, with mixed results.

Ruud Gullit was World Player of the year in 1987 and 89, and captained Holland to a Euro title in 1988. He won the FA Cup as manager of Chelsea in 1997, which was their first major trophy in 26 years. He was fired after a short stay, due to conflict with the club’s board. His results were (at best) mixed after that while managing Newcastle, Feyenoord, Los Angeles, and Terek Grozny. Arguably, he could occupy a spot in the failure category, but I’ll be generous this time.

Failures:
Bobby Charlton was a terrific player for Man Utd and England, winning the World Cup in 1966. However, he flopped in a short attempt at managing. He took over at Preston North End in 1973, and they were relegated in his first season. He left in 1976, when he decided coaching wasn’t his thing.

Michel Platini should get no objection as a former superstar player. As a manager, he took over a failed attempt at qualification for the French team in 1990. He then guided them to the Euros in 1992, but they were eliminated in the first round, and he resigned.

Alan Shearer had a brilliant career for Blackburn, Newcastle, and England. His stint as a manager with Newcastle was short – only eight matches. However, since they were relegated at the end of the 2009 season, I don’t have much choice but to put him in the failure list.

Bobby Moore was an English legend, and captained the 1966 World Cup winning team. He was also a legendary defender who spent most of his career at West Ham. He then managed a team in Hong Kong, as well as Oxford City and Southend United. I don’t really have much information about his managing career, other than the fact it was short and without any recognizable success.

Gheorghe Hagi had a very long playing career, and carried Romania to three World Cup appearances. He could arguably be put in the mixed results category for his ability to secure several different jobs. But he was recently fired in his second stint as boss at Galatasaray, and never really did anything of note as a manager.

Diego Maradona was quite obviously a former superstar player, but I’m going to put him in the failure category as far as managers are concerned. He just barely guided Argentina to qualification for the 2010 World Cup. They did win four times in a row before getting routed by Germany in the quarterfinals. His contract was non-renewed, and he is now managing Al Wasl in Dubai. I guess I’m putting him on the failure list because of the way Argentina lost to Germany and the way they struggled to qualify, despite the incredible talent he had to choose from. Plus I think he’s a bit of a nut case, and his most famous goal was blatant cheating.

Whew. That was quite a list of names. My conclusion after doing all that research is that former superstar players typically don’t turn into superstar managers. However, they seem to have a much better success rate in soccer than they do in many other sports. In some sports, especially American football, the tactical side is extremely complicated. I can’t imagine a former player being gifted a head coaching job without any prior coaching experience. At least with soccer, since there aren’t any constant timeouts to discuss new plays and strategies, the game is largely left up to the intelligence and talents of the players on the field. So a manager’s job is a little bit simpler, and doesn’t require constantly calling new plays throughout an entire game. If a former superstar soccer player is a great leader and motivator, he might have a fighting chance to succeed if he can mix that with a little intelligence as well.

The there are few theories as to why it’s hard for a former superstar to become a great coach/manager. One is that for the great players, everything comes easily. So when they coach, they have a hard time relating to the “mere mortals” they have to deal with. Related to that is the theory that since it was easy for them as players, they didn’t really have to become students of the game in order to succeed. Perhaps there’s some truth to both of those theories.

But there’s a much bigger reason why so many struggle. And that is, they often don’t have to pay their dues coming up the ranks. They usually have long playing careers, while lesser players have already begun coaching. So while lesser players have to pay their dues as assistant coaches and such, superstars are often gifted positions with little or no coaching experience. An example would be Alan Shearer. If you’re a Newcastle owner, is there a more popular person to anoint as manager than Alan Shearer? Who cares if he’s never done it before? He’s Alan Shearer! He can do no wrong!

When the U.S. Soccer Federation was looking for a new head man a short while ago, they turned to Jürgen Klinsmann. Immediately, all the casual soccer fans got excited. I mean, we’ve actually heard of this guy! I can promise you that the casual fan in the U.S. was a lot more excited about Klinsmann than he/she would have ever been about Joachim Löw, to make a comparison.

Well, I’m probably not reporting anything too earth shaking. Obviously, for former world class players, the world is their oyster, and they can do just about whatever they want. Television and radio jobs are easier to come by too. I guess it’s a similar story for really good-looking women, who are somehow a lot more likely to end up on tv than ugly women, even if they are not any more insightful or witty.

Anyway, getting back to Dennis Bergkamp for a minute, he’s about the equivalent of what Shearer is for Newcastle fans. Except with Bergkamp, he’s at least begun paying his dues as an assistant coach at Ajax. (On the other hand, what if he refused to fly with the team to various outposts in Europe? I’m not really sure about his current view on airplanes.) But I guess my general point is that I don’t think Arsenal fans should be dreaming of Bergkamp in charge of Arsenal just yet. If we had to replace Wenger right now, I’d much rather have someone like Laurent Blanc, to choose a name simply by means of example. Blanc even had a couple of years with Man Utd, so he’s the anti-Bergkamp from a sentimental standpoint. But he’s paid his dues as a manager, and has had some success in doing so. And ultimately, when making a decision about a manager for a plum coaching job, it should be about who can manage the best, even if that person has never kicked a soccer ball. (Here’s looking at you, André Villas-Boas.)

Ok, well I hope I’ve incited some civilized debate for today. I’m not sure who’s doing the blogging this weekend, but I’m sure we’ll have you covered. And while our Twitter account got a few new followers in its early days, it’s leveled off a bit lately. So hop on board and see what we have to say on there too.

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Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. I Timothy 6:6-7.

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