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Real Madrid: Top 5 Greatest Managers in Club History

By Prasanna Baidya

Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho (Photo credit should read DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho (Photo credit should read DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Former Real Madrid Manager Jose Villalonga
Jose Villalonga (Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) /

4. Jose Villalonga

Jose Villalonga, the former Spain national team manager, had an unusual journey to becoming a Real Madrid coach. Initially, a physical education teacher and physical coach under Juan Antonio Ipiña and Enrique Fernandez (both former Real Madrid managers); took over the Los Blancos first team in the middle of 1954/55 league season following Fernandez’s departure. He is also the first coach ever to win the European Cup.

In his first season as the Blancos manager, he led the team to their second consecutive La Liga title. He also won the Latin Cup (a precursor to the European Cup) in the same year. Villalonga will make history in the subsequent year when he coached Real Madrid to win the first-ever European Cup. He achieved greatness as soon as he led the likes of Alfredo di Stefano, Raymond Kopa, and captain Miguel Munoz to lift the holy grail of club football in its first-ever iteration. He is till this date the youngest manager to lift the trophy.

In 1956/57, his third and final season as the head coach of the Whites, Real Madrid not only won their second straight European Cup but also clinched the La Liga title marking the first time any club had won the league and European Cup double. He departed the club with a total of six trophies under his name.

Villalonga was a manager well ahead of his time. His focus on the physical aspect of the game, along with skilled and technical players, launched the most successful period in the club’s history.

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