Just two seasons ago, very few people would have dared to rank Luis Enrique among the greatest coaches in football history. But his arrival on the Paris Saint-Germain bench on July 5, 2023, changed everything. In his first year in charge of the Parisian club, he laid the foundations, and in the 2024/25 season he reaped the rewards of his impeccable management by winning PSG’s first Champions League title in history.
He achieved it in a final in which his team was vastly superior to an Inter Milan side that had eliminated Hansi Flick’s Barcelona in the semifinals. PSG crushed the Italian team 5–0 and claimed European glory. For Luis Enrique, it was his second Champions League title. His first came with Barcelona in the 2014/15 season, when the Catalans defeated Juventus 3–1 in the final played in Berlin.
This Saturday, with his victory over Arsenal, the Asturian coach achieved something very few have managed: his third Champions League title. He now equals other legendary managers such as Pep Guardiola (2009, 2011, 2023) and Zinedine Zidane (2016, 2017, 2018). Guardiola won two titles with Barcelona and one with Manchester City, while Zidane won all three with Real Madrid, and did so consecutively.
English manager Bob Paisley also won three Champions League titles with Liverpool in 1977, 1978, and 1981. However, at the top of the all-time Champions League coaching rankings stands a true managerial legend: Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian coach, now Brazil’s national team manager, has won the competition five times.
Champions League Titles by Coach
Carlo Ancelotti (2003, 2007, 2014, 2022, 2024)
Bob Paisley (1977, 1978, 1981)
Zinedine Zidane (2016, 2017, 2018)
Pep Guardiola (2009, 2011, 2023)
Luis Enrique (2015, 2025, 2026)
Ancelotti won his first two Champions League titles with AC Milan in 2003 and 2007. Nearly a decade later, he secured his third with Real Madrid in 2014. He then added two more titles with the Spanish giants in 2022 and 2024, bringing his total to five and making him the most successful coach in the competition’s history. Luis Enrique, now just two titles behind Ancelotti, has entered football’s elite.
