In football, being a great player doesn’t always translate to being a great coach. The qualities that make someone a legend on the pitch—skill, instinct, and leadership—don’t necessarily equip them for the challenges of managing a team. Coaching requires a completely different set of abilities: tactical acumen, adaptability, man-management, and the capacity to inspire a group of players from the sidelines.
Over the years, the football world has seen many celebrated players attempt to transition into coaching, often with high expectations attached to their legendary status. However, for some, the results have been underwhelming, with careers defined more by their failures than their successes. These stories serve as a reminder that football greatness on the field doesn’t guarantee greatness in the dugout.
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This article examines seven football icons who struggled to make their mark as coaches, despite their extraordinary achievements as players. From Thierry Henry to Diego Forlan, we’ll explore how these legends fell short in their attempts to lead from the sidelines and the lessons their journeys offer.
7. Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry, unlike Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard who are often ridiculed for their failures in their coaching careers, avoids criticism. This may be due to his charming French accent, his sophisticated analytical style or the special charm that Rooney and Gerrard lack among English fans.
However, it could be argued that Henri’s performance as a coach is worse than the Englishman’s. Despite having had the opportunity to learn from football gurus such as Arsene Wenger, Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola, his career path leaves much to be desired. In his first coaching experience at Monaco, Henri fell short and lasted just three months, racking up just 20 per cent of wins. He was replaced by Leonardo Jardim, who quickly led the team out of the relegation zone.
Then there was a short stint at Montreal Impact, where Henri won just 31 per cent of his matches and the team finished 18th out of 26 in MLS. His departure was due to family reasons rather than changes at the club. Henri later took charge of France’s youth national teams, and his work at the 2024 Olympics with the team that won silver was his greatest achievement.
However, despite being one of the best on the pitch, his coaching journey leaves many questions.
6. Yap Stam
Yap Stam is one of the best centre-backs I have seen. His confidence and strength was evident on the pitch and his physical attributes, such as his 1.91m height, only enhanced his image as an unbeatable player. However, in his coaching career, Stam was unable to replicate his success on the field.
His first coaching experience at Redding was successful, with the team reaching the playoff finals, but then things went wrong. The following season he was sacked after poor results. Stam returned to the Netherlands, where he took charge of Feyenoord, but could not succeed – his team won only 7 out of 18 matches, and at the end of the season took 12th place.
Dick Advocaat, his successor, saved the season for Feyenoord by leading the team to third place, stating that Stam’s only good decision was to leave. After failures in the Netherlands and the United States, where he coached Cincinnati, Stam left to join the Dos Kampen club in the Dutch seventh division.
5. Frank Lempard
Jap Stam may be coaching an amateur team in the seventh division of the Netherlands, and Frank Lampard is working in England’s second division, but I think Lampard is even worse as a manager than Stam and other losers like Edgar Davids, who coached in Portugal’s fifth division, or Dirk Kuyt, who is going with his team at the bottom of the Belgian league table.
Lampard got the job at Derby due to his connection with his uncle Harry Rednapp and made the team a promotion contender, but it all ended in defeat in the play-off final. After that, due to his status as a player and club legend, he became Chelsea coach. In his first season with him, the club finished in 4th place, but without trophies. In the second season things got worse – Chelsea slipped to the middle of the table, and he was replaced by Thomas Tuchel, who not only led the team to the Champions League, but also won it.
Further Lampard moved to Everton, where he also failed to fulfil his tasks. He led the team to only 16th place, and was later sacked when Everton found themselves in the relegation zone. Lampard then became the coach of Chelsea on loan again, where he lost 8 of 11 games. His attempts to resurrect his career at Coventry also failed – he won only 3 out of 8 games.
Since then his coaching career looks like one continuous series of failures: 63 games, 16 wins, 13 draws and 34 defeats.
4. Andrea Pirlo
Andrea Pirlo has something that makes you think he could be a good coach. Perhaps it’s his serenity and calmness under pressure, or simply his charisma, similar to Zinedine Zidane, who has had success on the coaching bridge. However, as practice shows, it is not always a player with outstanding ability who becomes a good coach.
Pirlo became Juventus head coach just days after leading the Zebras’ under-23 team. His appointment was a rushed one. In his first and only season at Juventus, Pirlo led the team to only a 4th place finish, 13 points away from the title, and nearly lost a Champions League trip, with embarrassing home defeats to Benevento and Fiorentina.
After failing in Italy, Pirlo tried his hand in Turkey at club Fatih Karagümrük, where his lacklustre results led to his resignation. He returned to coaching in the summer of 2023, taking charge of Samadoria, but even there he failed to make an impact, losing after three matches and picking up just one point.
Pirlo was a great player, but as a coach he proved himself even worse than Frank Lampard, which deserves his place in this top.
3. Henrik Larsson
Henrik Larsson is a case where a great player doesn’t always make a good coach. He was a superb striker, becoming a legend at Celtic where he scored 242 goals in 313 games and won 8 trophies and 5 Scottish Golden Boot trophies. After successful careers at Barcelona and Manchester United, Larsson ended his career in 2009 to become a coach.
His first experience in coaching was with the club Landskrona, which after his arrival failed to rise to the top division and narrowly avoided relegation. Larsson went on to coach Falkenberg, keeping the club in the top division, but his contract was not renewed. In 2015, he returned to his native Helsingborg, who, despite some improvement, fell into the lower division the following season. Larsson then pursued a coaching career, but his latest attempt in 2019 was again unsuccessful.
Despite an outstanding career as a player, Larsson was never able to succeed in coaching, becoming an example of how personal merit on the pitch doesn’t always carry over to the coaching position.
2. Alessandro Nesta
Alessandro Nesta is one of the greatest centre-backs of the last 30-40 years in the history of football. His name should rank alongside Italian legends such as Franco Baresi and Fabio Cannavaro. Personally, I think Nesta was even better than Cannavaro, even though Cannavaro’s 2006 World Cup successes and Ballon d’Or win overshadowed Nesta’s career.
Nesta was strong, athletic, elegant, with a great interception game and unique game intuition. As a coach, however, Nesta, is short on stars. After finishing his career as a player, Nesta went on to coach Miami FC, then he was head coach at Italian clubs Pescara, Frosinone and Reggian, but never achieved much success.
His last experience in Serie A with Monza also ended in failure. After 20 matches in which the team won only twice, Nesta was sacked. Overall, despite his outstanding abilities as a player, Nesta failed to live up to expectations as a coach.
1. Diego Forlan
Diego Forlan is one of the greatest players of his time, but his career didn’t pan out in team management. He started his coaching job at Pensarol where, despite a successful period before his arrival, he failed to produce results, winning only 4 games out of 11 and was sacked. After that Forlan tried his hand at Atenas, but there he worked only 12 matches and then decided to change his career and move to professional tennis.
His coaching career was a complete failure, despite his achievements on the pitch.
The history of many great footballers who became coaches shows that the transition from player to coach is not always successful. The coaching and leadership skills that are so important on the field don’t always carry over into coaching.
Football legends such as Diego Forlan, Frank Lampard and others have proved that even outstanding players cannot always transfer their experience and skills to the team.
