Pochettino, Ancelotti and Tuchel Lead Club Coaching’s National Team Shift

Elite club coaching has made an unexpected shift into the international game, with Mauricio Pochettino leading the United States, Carlo Ancelotti in charge of Brazil, Thomas Tuchel managing England, Zinedine Zidane appointed by France and Jürgen Klopp taking Germany.

Seven years earlier, those roles belonged to Gregg Berhalter, Tite, Gareth Southgate, Didier Deschamps and Joachim Löw. In 2019, the incoming group were all established in Europe’s leading club competitions: Pochettino had taken Tottenham to the Champions League final, Ancelotti was at Napoli, Tuchel coached Paris Saint-Germain, Zidane had returned to Real Madrid and Klopp had just won the European Cup with Liverpool.

Quick facts

• Pochettino has overseen 33 United States matches across two years.
• His final full Tottenham season contained 56 fixtures in 10 months.
• Napoli collected a club-record 91 Serie A points under Maurizio Sarri in 2017-18.
• Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli won Serie A by 16 points in 2022-23.
• Italy scored three goals and conceded five at Euro 2024 under Spalletti.
• Premier League managerial jobs last less than 18 months on average.

The change reflects a shrinking pool of club posts that combine Champions League ambitions with salaries above $10 million. England’s traditional Big Six has effectively narrowed amid Tottenham’s prolonged relegation struggles, while the other major leagues offer few equivalent destinations: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid in Spain; Paris Saint-Germain in France; and Bayern Munich in Germany.

Several of those positions are also closed off by long-serving incumbents or personal history. Luis Enrique has held Paris Saint-Germain, Mikel Arteta remains central to Arsenal and Diego Simeone has retained Atlético’s long-term backing. Potential sanctions facing Manchester City, old rivalries and former appointments further reduce the viable market for the most decorated unemployed coaches.

That has coincided with a redistribution of authority inside major clubs. Recruitment, contracts and long-term squad planning are increasingly handled by sporting departments rather than a single manager, leaving many head coaches with less influence than the previous generation enjoyed.

International management offers a different arrangement. National-team coaches select their player pool, set the playing model and become the leading public figure of the federation, while federations can still offer salaries capable of attracting the biggest names. The pressure is also less relentless than at a top Premier League club.

Club pedigree does not guarantee international success

There is a clear logic to appointing coaches with Champions League titles and major domestic honours. The standard of international management is uneven, and the best managers can produce a meaningful edge over a longer period. Yet recent evidence suggests that club success does not automatically transfer to the national-team calendar.

Luis Enrique and Hansi Flick are among Europe’s most accomplished active club coaches. Both have won major trophies in more than one leading league, lifted the Champions League and imposed recognisable tactical identities. Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain reaching next May’s Champions League final would not be a shock.

Neither improved his national side at the 2022 World Cup. Germany went out in the group phase under Flick, while Spain, coached by Luis Enrique, lost on penalties to Morocco in the last 16 despite recording 77% possession and only one shot on target. Both teams’ Elo ratings fell slightly during their respective spells.

Spalletti’s Italy tenure offered another warning. He had transformed Napoli into Serie A champions in 2022-23, finishing 16 points clear after a third-place campaign the year before and beating Klopp’s Liverpool 4-1 in the Champions League group stage.

Italy had won Euro 2020 but missed the 2022 World Cup, making Spalletti an obvious choice to revive the team. Instead, Switzerland eliminated Italy in the Euro 2024 round of 16, and he was dismissed during an unsuccessful 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. In his final media appearance, Spalletti accepted that the coach and players must make the difference and said he had failed to do so.

There are notable successes. Deschamps had already managed Monaco, Juventus and Marseille before leading France to a World Cup triumph, another final decided by penalties and nearly 15 years in the position. Louis van Gaal moved the Netherlands from sixth to second in the Elo rankings between 2012 and 2014.

Marcello Lippi won the 2006 World Cup with Italy after a Champions League title and multiple Serie A championships at Juventus. Antonio Conte, between his Juventus and Chelsea jobs, beat Spain and then lost to Germany on penalties at Euro 2016.

But the list of high-profile disappointments is substantial. Jorge Sampaoli’s Argentina departed the 2018 World Cup in the last 16 despite his earlier achievements with Chile and Sevilla. Fabio Capello did not substantially advance England after arriving from title-winning Real Madrid.

Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay spell ended with the coach describing himself as “toxic” and saying association with him left people worse off. Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany produced one knockout victory at Euro 2024 before a World Cup round-of-32 loss to Paraguay. Tuchel, Ancelotti and Pochettino also failed to better the results of their predecessors over the past summer.

A different job from club management

The decisive limitation is preparation time. Sarri made that point while at Chelsea in 2018, arguing that national managers could not properly construct a side in roughly 30 days of work and that leading clubs would beat World Cup teams in regular meetings.

His wider argument was built on the advantages available to clubs: daily training, international recruitment, richer squads and growing broadcast income. National coaches work in shorter camps, with limited opportunities to drill the detailed pressing, possession patterns and automatisms that define many elite club sides.

The job also demands a different set of priorities. A national manager must monitor a broad player pool, maintain relationships with clubs, assess availability and plan a squad over several years. Those responsibilities do not closely resemble the match-to-match tactical focus of an elite club season.

International football also contains more volatility because meaningful matches are scarce and knockout tournaments are unforgiving. Federations often turn to a famous manager when results have already exposed deeper problems in the player pool, issues that even the best coach cannot solve quickly.

The modern international bench may now have more celebrated club names than it did at the end of the previous decade. That raises the level of coaching available to the United States, Brazil, England, France and Germany, but it does not remove the structural limits that have long made national-team success difficult to control.

The point is underlined by the last two World Cup-winning coaches, who have managed no Champions League matches between them. International football may reward a different kind of expertise from the one that secures the biggest club jobs.