FC Barcelona’s Top Five Managers – Part 1: Herrera, Frank Rijkaard, Ferdinand Daučík
FC Barcelona is one of the most successful and biggest football clubs in history and they have had some amazing managers over the years.
Unfortunately, this list can only include the top five managers, and a lot of brilliant personalities will be left out.
Helenio Herrera
Barcelona had Helenio Herrera as their boss from 1959 to 1961. He won two league titles, one Inter Cities Fairs Cup and a Spanish Cup.
He miraculously had a roughly eighty percent win rate. All these achievements made by the club during his tenure have made him a FC Barcelona legend. He is still loved and respected by all the fans that know him, and he is without a doubt one of the most successful managers in this club’s history.
In 1981, he graced his presence once again in Barcelona for only twenty-five matches and amazingly he won another trophy with the club, which was the Spanish Super Cup.
Frank Rijkaard
Frank Rijkaard came to FC Barcelona in 2003, and during this period, the club was in crisis and in one of Barcelona’s darkest times.
The club had been going through a title-dry spell and had not won any major honour in the last season (or, in fact, anything since 1999). This also came coinciding with the time that Rivaldo left the club and right after his exit, the club throttled downwards and actually finished as the sixth ranked team in the La Liga!
Rijkaard was relatively not what you call ‘experienced’, but Barcelona still gave him the reins and appointed him as the new boss. Initially, Frank Rijkaard’s time with the club seemed like a lost bet as the team was even worse than it was the previous season.
The Dutchman came very close to getting sacked; however, in the second part of the season, Barcelona made a compelling comeback. This change was led by Ronaldinho as he made a series of very thrilling and brilliant goals.
The season after that, FC Barcelona finished as second ranked in the La Liga, behind only Valencia, and this was a close call as it was still not clear who would win the title till the very end.
Even in the next season, Ronaldinho was on one of the best forms of his life. Frank Rijkaard took Barcelona to the league title win that always seemed to be just too far away for Barcelona to reach, as well as the Supercopa de España.
They won the title and the Supercup again in the 2005-06 season and they bagged the Champions League trophy, beating Arsenal 2-1 in the final for their first European Cup victory in 14 years.
However, they could not repeat their success in the next two seasons, and eventually Josep Guardiola took over the reigns as Barcelona manager (at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season).
However, it is a fact that Ronaldinho and Frank Rijkaard were the reasons for Barcelona’s resurgence to the titles and Rijkaard took his name as one of Barcelona’s legends.
Another important thing attributed to this manager is that he launched the career of one of the most brilliant footballers of all time: Lionel Messi.
Ferdinand Daučík
Ferdinand Daučík was Barcelona’s boss during one of the club’s most successful times in their history. He was the boss for four seasons and in that time, the club won two La Liga titles consecutively and the Copa Del Rey doubles both in 1952 and 1953.
In 1952, under Daučík, the club won five different trophies. These include the Copa Del Rey, Copa Latino, the La Liga, the Copa Eva Duarte and the Copa Martini Rossi.
Ferdinand Daučík’s contract with FC Barcelona ended in 1954, but he is still known as one of the most successful managers in the club’s history.
To read Part 2 of this article, please click http://www.senore.com/FC-Barcelonas-Top-Five-Managers-Part-2-Pep-Guardiola,-Johan-Cruyff-a37846.
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