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Real Madrid’s history has been shaped by some legendary coaches, many of whom managed to deliver instant success at the Santiago Bernabeu. From Miguel Muñoz’s long reign in the 20th Century, to Carlo Ancelotti’s two successful spells, Los Blancos have enjoyed several golden eras under the guidance of some of the greats of the modern game.
Hoping to join the list of the best Real Madrid coaches is the recently-appointed Xabi Alonso who is gearing up for his first season in charge of the club he played for between 2009 and 2014.
According to the latest LaLiga betting odds, Los Blancos are the slight favourites to win the title in Alonso’s first campaign. Dethroning Hansi Flick’s Barcelona would represent a strong start to the Basque coach’s bid to ultimately be considered among the greats to have managed this famous old club.
Six Real Madrid coaches who changed the club’s history
Miguel Muñoz (1959 & 1960-1974)
Real Madrid’s status as Europe’s dominant force can be traced back to the reign of Miguel Muñoz who is widely regarded as the club’s greatest ever coach.
That can be debated, but Madrid’s longest-serving boss racked up a long list of honours, with two European Cups and nine league titles secured during his 14-year reign. Having also won the European Cup three times as a player for the club, Muñoz is a towering figure who played a pivotal role in the start of Real Madrid’s love affair with the competition.
Nobody since has got close to staying in the Bernabeu hotseat for as long as Muñoz who would go on to manage Spain in the 1980s, following stints with Granada, Las Palmas and Sevilla.
Leo Beenhakker (1986-1989 & 1992)
When it comes to the most-loved Real Madrid sides, the Quinta del Buitre generation in the second half of the 1980s ranks pretty high up, certainly in terms of domestic success given they won five straight LaLiga titles.
That period of domination in Spain was largely overseen by Leo Beenhakker who won the league in each of his three seasons in charge of the club in his first spell which ran from 1986 to 1989.
Seen as a more pragmatic coach with strong man-management skills, there are certainly parallels between the Dutchman and some of Real Madrid’s more recent coaches, although European glory eluded Beenhakker who saw his side defeated in European Cup semi-finals on three occasions.
Jupp Heynckes (1997-1998)
While he was only in charge of Real Madrid for one season, Jupp Heynckes unquestionably changed the course of the club’s history, given he was the man to end a 32-year wait for another European Cup.
Many had tried and failed to emulate Muñoz’s class of 1966, before Heynckes arrived at the Bernabeu and delivered that elusive seventh European title in the 1997/98 campaign. Predrag Mijatovic’s final goal against Juventus in Amsterdam ranks among the most significant in the club’s history as the strike that ended a long continental drought.
While Heynckes was still dismissed after a disappointing fourth-place finish in LaLiga, he was the coach that effectively started a new era of success for Real Madrid in Europe.
Vicente del Bosque (1994, 1996, 1999-2003)
It would only take another three years for Real Madrid to get their hands on the European Cup again, this time with Vicente del Bosque at the helm. The Spaniard was a somewhat reluctant head coach initially, having twice taken charge of Real Madrid on a caretaker basis, before agreeing to take on the job permanently in late 1999 as a replacement for John Toshack.
Not for the first or last time in Real Madrid’s history, their new man delivered immediate European success as Los Blancos saw off Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Valencia to win the first Champions League of the new century.
Del Bosque won major trophies in each of his four seasons at the helm, with another Champions League success in 2001/02, as well as league titles in 2000/01 and 2002/03 as the Galactico era began.
Carlo Ancelotti (2013-2015, 2021-2025)
Having departed Real Madrid for the second time this summer, Carlo Ancelotti left having won more trophies than any other coach in the club’s history, topping even Muñoz by virtue of his three European Cup, three Club World Cup, three European Super Cup, two league, two Copa del Rey and two Spanish Supercopa wins.
Like Heynckes, he ended a relative drought in terms of continental success, by delivering “La Decima” in 2014 – the club’s tenth European Cup win, a triumph that helped lay the foundations for five more Madrid Champions League victories.
Ancelotti oversaw two of those successes after he was plucked from Everton to return to the club in 2021, and despite a disappointing final season and doubters who questioned his tactical nous, the Italian delivered immense success in both spells and unquestionably goes down as one of the club’s most influential coaches.
Zinedine Zidane (2016-2018, 2019-2021)
On many levels, Zinedine Zidane goes down as one of the most unlikely success stories as far as the modern era of Real Madrid coaches go.
Few saw the Frenchman as a future managerial great when he was in charge of Real’s B team between 2014 and 2016, but he instantly commanded the respect of the senior squad when he replaced Rafa Benitez as first-team boss in early January 2016. Zidane’s appointment sparked a remarkable period in the club’s history as Los Blancos won three straight Champions League titles, as well as LaLiga in the 2016/17 season.
Having walked out after the 2018 final Kyiv, Zidane returned in a late-season switch the following year, and while he couldn’t deliver fresh European glory, Real Madrid did again win the league under his guidance in the 2019/20 campaign.
