Never mind the players — the dugouts at the 2026 World Cup might be the most fascinating part of the whole tournament. The coaching lineup assembled across 48 nations is genuinely unlike anything the competition has produced before, and that's not a case of pre-tournament hyperbole.
Carlo Ancelotti, the only manager to win the Champions League five times, is now in charge of Brazil. Thomas Tuchel — a Champions League winner with Chelsea — led England through a perfect qualifying campaign, eight wins, zero goals conceded. Mauricio Pochettino has taken on the pressure cooker of the United States co-hosts. Julian Nagelsmann, still in his thirties, is already in his second major tournament with Germany. Four of the most coveted club managers in Europe, all converging at the same World Cup. That simply hasn't happened before.
The coaches who already know how to win tournaments
Ancelotti, Tuchel, Pochettino and Nagelsmann haven't won an international tournament yet. But others in this field have.
Didier Deschamps is managing France for the last time. He won the World Cup in 2018, reached the final in 2022, and in 14 years has made three major finals with Les Bleus. Lionel Scaloni, the man who ended Argentina's 36-year wait in Qatar, is still in charge and has added two Copa América titles to that 2022 triumph. Luis de la Fuente won Euro 2024 with Spain just two years ago. Emerse Fae — who wasn't even the head coach when the 2023 AFCON started — somehow led Ivory Coast to the title after stepping up mid-tournament following a managerial resignation.
France and Argentina are obvious picks for the final at 1-19 in New Jersey. With Deschamps and Scaloni both knowing exactly what that environment demands, those odds are well-founded.
The Premier League reunion nobody planned
Former Premier League managers are scattered across this tournament in numbers that would make the Football Association blush.
- Marcelo Bielsa — the cult hero of Elland Road — takes charge of Uruguay
- Jesse Marsch, Bielsa's successor at Leeds, leads co-hosts Canada
- Ronald Koeman manages the Netherlands, having previously coached Southampton and Everton
- Roberto Martinez, once of Everton and Wigan, takes charge of Portugal
- Julen Lopetegui — sacked by Spain on the eve of 2018 for agreeing to join Real Madrid — finally gets his World Cup with Qatar
- Ralf Rangnick brings his pressing system to Austria
- Steve Clarke leads Scotland, who have never won a knockout match at a World Cup
- Graham Potter, written off after Chelsea and West Ham, is back in Scandinavia mode with Sweden
- Dick Advocaat, 78 years old, coaches Curacao — his third World Cup, 32 years after his first
Advocaat's story alone deserves its own documentary. He qualified Curacao, stepped down to care for his ill daughter, then was convinced to return weeks later. At 78, he will become the oldest manager in World Cup history.
Then there's Carlos Queiroz, who takes charge of Ghana and will become only the third manager ever to coach at five successive World Cups. He joins an extraordinarily short list alongside Bora Milutinovic and Carlos Alberto Pereira, the record holder with six.
Legendary players turned managers
Two coaches at this tournament won the World Cup as players. Deschamps lifted the trophy in France in 1998 before doing it again as manager in 2018 — one of only three men in history to achieve that double. The other is Fabio Cannavaro, Italy's captain and Ballon d'Or winner from 2006, now in charge of debutants Uzbekistan — the first Central Asian nation to ever qualify for the World Cup finals.
Vincenzo Montella, part of the Italy squad that reached Euro 2000, has qualified Türkiye for their first World Cup since their semifinal run in 2002. Former Brazil great Ronaldo Nazário's involvement in Real Valladolid aside, these are the managers carrying the nostalgic weight of what the game used to look like on the pitch.
The 2026 World Cup kicks off on June 11, with the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19. The football will be compelling. But watching Ancelotti, Deschamps, Scaloni, Tuchel and Pochettino navigate a 48-team field simultaneously — that is an entirely separate kind of spectacle.
