Best Young Managers in World Football: Destined for Big Jobs in the Future

It's a rare sight when you see a young coach by the sidelines coaching a top-level football club. Experience has a great deal of importance in the coaching career but with that being said, there are some top young coaches out there who already made a name for themselves and we are about to meet them. Hence it is important to put some light on the upcoming best young managers in world football.

As Pep Guardiola said once in an interview, "The joy of playing football and kicking the ball is not comparable to anything else including managing football teams. That is why there are not so many people who chose to become a football manager when they are young; because they want to try their luck as a football player and enjoy their playing career as long as possible. But of course, there are some exceptions."

Sometimes an early career-ending injury or just the sheer love and passion of managing leads people to start a coaching career at a relatively young age. And just for the record, keep in mind that when we use the term best young football coaches, we are referring to coaches that are at max at their early 40s. It's because the average age to become an elite coach in today's football is around 50 years old: Antonio Conte is 52, Zidane is 49, Jürgen Klopp is 54, Pep Guardiola is 50, Diego Simeone is 51, and Jose Mourinho is 58. Let us take a look st the list of the best young managers in world football today.

Best Young Managers in World Football Right Now?:

Julien Stéphan, 41

As a former midfielder, Julien Stéphan didn't have a remarkable career and his playing days lasted barely a decade. Then at the age of 35 he took over at Rennes B team and after three years, he got promoted to the Stade Rennes first team head coach position in 2018. On his debut season at the French top flight, Julien Stéphan won the Coupe de France title which was only the club's seventh major title in its history! Julien Stéphan kept up the good form and finished the league on the 3rd place in the following season which meant that Rennes could enjoy its first ever Champions League qualification.

Although his third season at the club didn't go well and Stéphan had to resign midseason, he is currently managing Strasbourg in the Ligue 1 and things are going smooth for him. The 41 years old Frenchman likes to dominate the matches by an attacking style which is based on a 4-3-3 formation.

His three-year experience at the youth level helped Stéphan to become an expert in working with the young talents on his squads and if he could replicate what he did at Rennes on his first couple of seasons, he has an exciting future waiting for him.

Gerardo Seoane, 43

Even if you are a passionate football fan, there is still a good chance that you may have never heard of Gerardo Seoane as a top coach who have achieved some incredible results at the age of 43. In the summer of 2021, Gerardo Seoane have joined the German side, Bayer Leverkusen to enjoy his first season at one of Europe's top five leagues. But his three-year spell at Young Boys is what made Gerardo Seoane one of the top young college football coaches from Switzerland.

In the 2018-19 season which was his debut season at Young Boys, Seoane led the club to its first Swiss league title after more than three decades. The Swiss coach was 40 years old back then and he managed to win the league on his following two seasons as well. He also added a Swiss Cup trophy to the club's cabinet during the 2019-20 season. in addition to the domestic successes, Gerardo Seoane had a couple of great European runs with Young Boys as they had reached to the UCL group stage in the 2018-19 season and managed to beat Juventus and draw with Valencia.

Reaching to the last 16 stage in the Europa League 2020-21 was also a remarkable result for the Swiss tactician. Currently Gerardo Seoane is having a decent season at Levekusen with his favorite 4-4-2 formation. At such an young age, Seoane has brought a revolution in Leverkusen, which surely puts him as one of the best young managers in world football.

Diego Martinez, 40

Spanish football is known for its attacking style that tends to keep the position as most as possible. But our man here, Diego Martinez, is not a typical Spaniard coach. He is one of the few people who started the coaching career when he was on his early 20s at the Imperio Albolote youth club.

For more than two decades, Diego Martinez was gaining experience as a coach at lower division small clubs. He also had the assistant role at Sevilla for two seasons from 2012 to 2014 where he had the chance to learn from one of the bests in the job, Unai Emery. In the summer of 2018 at the age of 37, Diego Martinez was appointed as the head coach of Granada in the Spanish second division.

His defensive 4-2-3-1 formation helped the club to gain a promotion to the La Liga and Martinez became the youngest coach in the Spanish top flight. On his first season at La Liga, Martinez finished the league sitting on 6th place which meant his side could play in the Europa League on the following season.

After eliminating Napoli and Molde in the knockout stages, Martinez's Granada reached to the quarter finals of the tournament where they lost to Manchester United. Nevertheless, Diego Martinez had three spectacular seasons with Granada and there is no doubt that his next job will be at a bigger club and he has the chance to build on his early successes in his coaching career. 

Roberto De Zerbi, 42

Roberto De Zerbi is one of those classic top young college football coaches who claimed the ladder of coaching career one step at a time. He was a mediocre attacking midfielder who said his farewell to the pitch in 2013 and months later, cut his teeth as a manager. His first job was coaching Darfo Boario in the Italian Serie D while he was 34 years old. His next stop was at Foggia in Serie C where he won his first trophy which was a Coppa Italia Lega Pro and was inches away from promoting his side to Serie B.

A bitter stint at Palermo was De Zerbi's first taste of Serie A in 2016. The next season he was given another chance to coach at the Italian top flight as the newcomers to the league, Benevento, trusted him. Despite sitting at the last place of the table, Roberto De Zerbi was praised for his attractive style of football. His side always tended to keep the position of the ball and ask questions of the opposition's defense. On the next season, Sassuolo recognized the young Italian's potential and chose him as the main man in their ambitious project.

During his two seasons at Sassuolo, Roberto De Zerbi put on one of the most delightful performances across the Europe. His main formation was 4-2-3-1 but he didn't hesitate to change to a back-three when it was needed. Although Roberto De Zerbi's sides could create tons of goalscoring opportunities, he has to work on his defensive tactics since his Sassuolo seemed vulnerable there. Right now, De Zerbi is coaching Shakhtar Donetsk and with a little bit of experience, he could easily become one of the top 20 managers in the world in the coming years. 

Marcelo Gallardo, 45

Young managers often don't have the opportunity to add some silverware to their name since the top clubs who can compete for big trophies are less likely to trust a young coach to lead their pricey squads. But that's not the case for the Argentinian Marcelo Gallardo. In fact, he is the most decorated manager in our best young football coaches list and even one of the most successful managers in the whole football world right now. Marcelo Gallardo had a decent career as a player and had the chance to play for likes of River Plate, Monaco, and PSG.

Before he announces his retirmenet as a player, Marcelo Gallardo obtained his coaching certificate from an Argentinian technical school while he was still playing for the Uruguayan side, Nacional. A year later the 35 years old Gallardo started coaching with the same club that he spent his last playing days at. Later Gallardo noted that starting a managerial career when you have to coach the players you know from your playing days, was a huge help for him in his debut season. That chemistry between Gallardo and his former teammates led to winning the Uruguayan league title in the 2011-12 season.

Since 2014, Marcello Gallardo is coaching the Argentinian giant, River Plate and he is the main man in one of the most prosperous eras in the club's history. His attacking style has led to a dozen of domestic and continental titles. Marcelo Gallardo is one of the few mangers in history that has two Copa Libertadores to his name and he is only 45 years old!  So, as one of the most successful best young football managers, there would be no surprise if we see Gallardo at the charge of an elite European side in the coming years. Marcelo Gallardo is one of the very rare managers to have never managed in Europe yet he is considered as one of the best young managers in world football today.

Ruben Amorim, 36

Portuguese football had provided some of the most talented football coaches in the recent years. Sergio Conceisao, Paulo Fonseca, Nuno Santo, Paulo Sousa and many others. The most recent one is Ruben Amorim who represented the Portugal national team on 14 occasions including two World Cups.

In 2018 and at the age of 33, Amorim started his coaching journey with a couple of short stints at Casa Pia and Braga B team in the second tier of Portuguese football. Then he got promoted to the Braga senior team and took the league by storm straight away as he won the Portuguese league cup, Taça da Liga.

Wining 10 games out of 13 was enough for Sporting to pay his €10m release cause at the middle of 2019-20 season and hire him as their new manager. Ruben Amorim continued to use his modern 3-4-3 system at Sporting which was working like a well-oiled machine. Stars got aligned for Amorim and his team in the 2020-21 season as they won the league title by losing just one match.

He also replicated the Taça da Liga championship with Sporting and won the Supercup in the following season as well. Ruben Amorim is now only 36 years old and has a long and exciting road ahead of him as one of the best young football coaches in the world. 

That completes out list of the best young managers in world football. Keep sure to follow us on Sportz Point as we bring you the updated lists in the future.