Managers With the Most Trophies in Football: The Leaders Explained

Sir Alex Ferguson leads the managers with the most trophies in football, with 49 titles in Khel Now’s May 2026 tally. That list puts Pep Guardiola next on 40 and Mircea Lucescu third on 38. But the total is only part of the story, which competitions count matters too.

If you’re comparing your favourite manager with a rival’s, you need more than a number. Here’s how the leading totals compare, what goes into them, and why the biggest trophy collection doesn’t automatically settle the greatest-manager debate.

Who has won the most trophies as a football manager?

Ferguson is the leader in both Khel Now’s and GiveMeSport’s accounts of football’s most decorated managers. Khel Now credits him with 49 trophies. The table below uses the totals published by Khel Now in May 2026, arranged from highest to lowest. Managers with the same total share a position; they aren’t separated by the prestige of their honours. These are dated career tallies, not a live leaderboard.

Position	Manager	Reported trophies
1	Sir Alex Ferguson	49
2	Pep Guardiola	40
3	Mircea Lucescu	38
4	Carlo Ancelotti	31
5	Valeriy Lobanovskyi	30
6	José Mourinho	26
7	Ottmar Hitzfeld	26
8	Luiz Felipe Scolari	26
9	Jock Stein	26
10	Giovanni Trapattoni	23
11	Arsène Wenger	21

On those figures, Ferguson’s advantage over Guardiola is nine trophies. Ancelotti sits just one ahead of Lobanovskyi, while four managers share the 26-trophy mark.

What counts towards a manager’s trophy total?

These totals aren’t limited to league titles or Champions League wins. Khel Now’s breakdowns include domestic cups, super cups, continental competitions and, where applicable, national-team honours.

That makes the definition broader than “major trophies”, a phrase that can leave plenty of room for argument. For example, Wenger’s 21 includes seven FA Community Shields and a Japanese Super Cup, alongside his league and cup successes.

The main types of honours included are:

• League championships: such as the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A.
• Domestic cups: such as the FA Cup, Scottish Cup and Coppa Italia.
• Super cups and similar competitions: including the Community Shield and domestic super cups.
• Continental honours: including the Champions League, Copa Libertadores and AFC Champions League.
• National-team trophies: Scolari’s collection includes the World Cup and Confederations Cup.

So, don’t read “26 trophies” as “26 league titles”. It’s a combined total across the competitions included in that manager’s record.

The same total can hide very different careers

Hitzfeld: European success with two German clubs

Ottmar Hitzfeld’s 26 includes seven Bundesliga titles and two Champions League victories. He won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern Munich in 2001.

His record also includes honours in Switzerland and a second-tier championship with SC Zug. That’s a useful reminder: an overall trophy tally can cover more than top-flight and continental titles.

Stein: a collection built mainly at Celtic

GiveMeSport credits Jock Stein with 26 trophies: one Scottish Cup at Dunfermline and 25 honours at Celtic. His Celtic collection includes 10 league championships, eight Scottish Cups, six Scottish League Cups and the European Cup.

Nine of those league titles came consecutively. And Celtic’s 1966-67 campaign delivered a continental treble, meaning league, principal domestic cup and European Cup success in the same season.

That gives you context a simple “26” cannot: much of Stein’s achievement was sustained success with one club.

Scolari: club trophies and a World Cup

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s reported 26 combines club and international honours. His collection includes two Copa Libertadores titles, an AFC Champions League and a World Cup with Brazil.

Under Scolari, Brazil beat Germany 2–0 in the World Cup final, with Ronaldo scoring both goals. His total therefore measures a different mix of achievements from a manager whose honours came entirely in club football.

Mourinho: success across several competitions

Khel Now puts José Mourinho on 26 trophies. His listed honours include three Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, two Serie A titles and a LaLiga championship.

His European collection also includes the UEFA Cup, Europa League and Europa Conference League. For supporters comparing careers, that variety is worth considering alongside the headline number.

What about Wenger and Trapattoni?

Wenger’s 21 trophies include 17 with Arsenal: three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and seven Community Shields. His wider collection also includes honours in France and Japan.

Giovanni Trapattoni is credited with 23 trophies. His honours span league championships in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria, as well as European competitions. Neither reaches the highest totals in this table. But their records show why trophy comparisons become more interesting when you consider where, and in which competitions, those honours were won.

Why do trophy rankings sometimes differ?

The date matters. GiveMeSport’s May 2026 account places Ferguson 10 trophies clear of second place, while Khel Now’s May figures put Ferguson on 49 and Guardiola on 40 – a nine-trophy gap.

The treatment of competitions matters too. GiveMeSport mentions a reserve-team cup won by Stein but explicitly excludes it from his total. Meanwhile, Khel Now’s breakdowns include honours such as Community Shields, state championships and a second-tier league title.

That’s why a career-total ranking and a ranking limited to selected major competitions answer different questions. You can reasonably prefer one comparison, but you shouldn’t treat them as interchangeable.

Does the most trophies mean the best manager?

Not automatically. In our view, the total is a strong starting point, not the final verdict. Counting every included trophy equally tells you how often a manager collected silverware; it doesn’t tell you how to value each achievement.

Would you give the same weight to a Community Shield and a Champions League? That’s a judgement about importance, not a calculation. Both competition types appear in these career breakdowns.

If European success is what interests you most, our guide to the clubs with the most Champions League titles looks at that narrower record.

FAQs

Who is ahead, Ferguson or Guardiola?

Ferguson leads 49-40 in Khel Now’s May 2026 tally. Those figures describe that published comparison, rather than a live count.

Do international trophies count?

Yes, in this tally. Scolari’s World Cup, Confederations Cup and Gulf Cup of Nations are included in his listed honours.

Are trophies won as a player included?

This comparison concerns managerial honours, not a combined playing-and-coaching career. The competition breakdowns are presented as titles won by each manager in charge of teams.

The useful distinction is simple: “most trophies” is a counting question; “greatest manager” is a football argument. Enjoy the argument but make sure everyone is counting the same things.