Pep Guardiola has been named the Best FIFA Men’s Coach for 2023.
- Guardiola wins The Best FIFA Men’s Coach award for first time in his career
- Catalan legend led Man City to a treble in 2022/23
- He beat Simone Inzaghi and Luciano Spalletti to claim the prize
Pep Guardiola has won the 2023 The Best FIFA Men’s Coach award after leading Manchester City to their epic treble last season.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager managed a superstar squad that included Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne as the Cityzens won the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League.
Guardiola defeated Inter manager Simone Inzaghi and Napoli title winner Luciano Spalletti, who is now in charge of Italy’s national men’s squad.
He also became the first coach to win two European trebles, having done so with Barcelona in 2009.
Xavi was already shortlisted before the final three were chosen, while Ange Postecoglou was also honoured for winning a domestic treble with Celtic before joining Tottenham Hotspur.
Guardiola is the inaugural winner of the award, having finished second in 2019 and third in both 2021 and 2022. After Lionel Scaloni was recognised for leading Argentina to World Cup triumph in Qatar, his win saw the trophy return to a club manager.
Guardiola became the sixth manager to win the men’s coach title, trailing Jurgen Klopp, who won it in 2019 and 2020. Other previous successful coaches include Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps, Claudio Ranieri, and Thomas Tuchel.
Pep Guardiola has been named the Best FIFA Men’s Coach for 2023.
From his Man City squad, Haaland was chosen in the final three for the Best FIFA Men’s Player award, with Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, with De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan – currently at Barcelona – Rodri and Bernardo Silva also shortlisted. Ederson was also nominated for the FIFA Men’s Keeper of the Year award.
Following their remarkable exploits in 2022/23, City began the current season slowly by their own standards, but they are now comfortably into the knockout stages of the Champions League and only two points behind Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.
