It’s not all about the Ballon d’Or; Coaches get their chance at an award as well, as FIFA released their shortlist with the candidates for the 2012 FIFA coach of the year. While the trophy winners are Vicente del Bosque and Roberto Di Matteo from this past year; Jose Mourinho is the highest profile champion, someone like Jurgen Klopp should win this award for what he’s done with Dortmund.
Vicente del Bosque, Spain – Won the Euro with Spanish national team, conceding only one goal on the road to the trophy. Some say that all Del Bosque does is copy whatever’s been going on in Barcelona and install the same system, with half of the same players, on the national side. Whatever it is that he’s doing, it works, winning his second major trophy with the national team.
Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea – Matteo did a bad job with Chelsea in the league after taking over from Andre Villas-Boas, but he saved what was salvageable. In a knockout competition, his negative tactics worked perfectly with Chelsea’s physical yet lacking-of-talent side, going all the way to win the Champions League despite not really deserving it.
Alex Ferguson, Manchester United – Keep working that magic. United lost the Premier League title on goal difference and were thwarted all season with serious injuries to the back line. Players, no matter the age and where they came from, just seem to be playing better for Ferguson.
Pep Guardiola, Barcelona – The year that broke the Guardiola back. He reached the Champions League semifinal and finished second in the La Liga. Barcelona kept playing that style everyone keeps praising (or getting sick of for some), which was great at times, but just wasn’t consistent enough.
Jupp Heynckes, Bayern Munich – Had the most talented team in Germany but missed out on the title in the Bundesliga. Should have won the Champions League, but made a defensive substitution late in the match and got punished for it. Not his fault that Arjen Robben can’t score a penalty kick, but didn’t do an exceptional job either.
Jurgen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund – Making Dortmund a relevant and important team again is just as big as the tactics Klopp brought forth through his team, making anonymous players into stars. Germany is going through a revolution with every team trying to play attacking football at the moment, but Klopp’s Dortmund usually do it better than anyone else, with the whole attack, press and defend as a unit thing.
Joachim Loew, Germany – Germany gave us a few fantastic moments during the Euro, but seeing as how they disappointed in their performance against Italy, it’s hard to see what was so special about what Loew did this year.
Roberto Mancini, Manchester City – So he has the richest team and the biggest squad of them all. It’s still pretty hard winning the Premier League title, especially for a team that hasn’t won it in over 40 years. Mancini needs to be credited for eventually figuring out what to do with the huge rotation, right?
Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid – Still hasn’t won the Champions League with Real, but finally took over the league. Real Madrid broke goal scoring record and most importantly, were consistent throughout the entire season with 100 points won, 121 goals scored and a nine-point margin over Barça. He now has titles in four different leagues around Europe.
Cesare Prandelli, Italy – A Euro manager who deserves some credit, as Italy shocked everyone by reaching the final and playing some pretty decent football along the way, especially in their semifinal win over Germany.