Who are the most expensive football/soccer managers?
Football enthusiasts often time ask the question and it’s increasingly not satisfying to tell the difference between the most expensive manager and the highest-paid manager.
The money that clubs pay for football managers is a fraction of the astronomical sums that are paid to footballers. However, sign-on fees to secure the service of top managers in football have increased significantly over the years. Due to the value of having a great manager, elite clubs have started paying high to get the best manager.
Here is a look at the ten most expensive football manager buyouts in football history.
- Frank Lampard – (Unattached, €4m)
Chelsea paid Derby County €4m to appoint their former player Lampard as their new manager back in 2019 following the exit of Sarri who left for Juventus.
On taking the reign at Stamford Bridge the former midfielder did a commendable job in helping the Blues to secure Champions League football and also keeps the youngsters in the team to prove their worth in his first season in charge.
However, the following season things turned sour for Lampard despite Chelsea’s huge investment in recruitment in the summer and was eventually sacked at the beginning of the year for Thomas Tuchel to take over.
- Maurizio Sarri – (Lazio, €5.6m)
Sarri’s appointment as the coach of Chelsea was made possible following the sacking of his compatriot Antonio Conte having splashed the sum of €5.6 to buy out of his contract from Napoli to be rated amongst the most expensive manager in football.
He couldn’t land the Premier League title for Chelsea but he was able to win the Europa League which happened to be his first managerial trophy since he became a coach.
The former Napoli tactician now manages Lazio in the Serie A, following his exit from Juventus and so far his impact has been felt on the Biancocelesti.
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- Ronald Koeman – (Barcelona, €6.0m)
Koeman’s reign at Everton is one unforgivable appointment he would want to forget in a hurry, due to his failure to turn the team around in terms of their performances despite all of the astronomical money the owner invested in the team.
The current Barcelona manager was pinched from Southampton for €6.0m to triggered his contract having done an incredible job with the Saints between 2014-16. On getting to Everton he couldn’t continue the brilliant job he did with the Saints at Everton which led to his sacking.
- Mark Hughes – (Unattached, €6.2m)
Shortly after the Cityzens were taken over by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment, they needed an astute coach that could take the club forward following the exit of the Swedish manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Immediately after Eriksson left, City appointed Mark Hughes from Blackburn Rovers for €6.2m which was then a world record fee paid to secure the service of a manager. With all the money he spent in the transfer market as the first boss under the City’s rich owners, Hughes couldn’t deliver the title and finished tenth in his first season with the club.
The former Southampton boss may not be in the same breathe with the Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, or Zinedine Zidane of this world, but he’s also a decent manager that could do pretty well with some of the mid-table team.
- Adi Hutter – (Borussia Monchengladbach, €7.5m)
The Austrian tactician swapped his managerial job as Eintracht Frankfurt gaffer to fellow Bundesliga rival Borussia Monchengladbach in a deal that makes him one of the expensive managers in the history of the game signing a three-year contract.
Hutter reign with Die Fohlen in the Bundesliga hasn’t really been what he’s expected of his team, with how poor they’ve been in the league which placed them in 16 on the table having come in with huge expectations from the back of his brilliant performance with Frankfurt.
It would be interesting to see how he would salvage the situation as swiftly as possible, because of the trust the club sporting director Max Eberl have in him when the board decided to appoint him as their new coach.
- Ruben Amorim – (Sporting Lisbon, €10.0m)
Amorim’s managerial raise on the big stage started with Braga. Managing just 13 top-flight games in the Portuguese top division, where he won consecutive Taca de Liga titles for Braga and Sporting Lisbon. His €10.0m move to Sporting makes him join the list of most expensive managers in football history.
Surprisingly, last season he took Sporting to the pinnacle of Portuguese football by winning the league with a remarkable winning rate of 70 percent, having failed to win it since 2002.
With the auspicious reputation the 36-year-old is building for himself in Portugal, it’s just a matter of time before top clubs in Europe come knocking on his door to trigger the €26m buyout clause of his current Sporting contract.
- Brendan Rodgers – (Leicester City, €10.4m)
Rodger’s brilliancy and tactical know-how as a top manager didn’t just pop into football enthusiasts’ eyes out of nowhere. It’s a thing that has been surfacing right from his time at Swansea down to Liverpool before moving to Scottish giant Celtic where he garnered huge success.
When the report about his move to Leicester City surfaced it was a smooth offer that is quite difficult to reject despite being on the verge of winning a treble in Scotland. He decided to quit the job midway through the season to team up with the Foxes for €10.4m and since then his impact with the team has been on an upward trajectory.
This season Leicester City game hasn’t really been really impressive compared to what we saw last season. However, the season is still very young, and with him at the helm of affairs at the King Power Stadium, he has that quality to turn things around.
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- Andre Villas-Boas – (Unattached, €15.0m)
Villas-Boas came well recommended to the Chelsea board following his move from Portuguese powerhouse Porto, having had a commendable exploit with the team winning a treble in his first season in charge to became the third-youngest manager ever to win a European competition at the age of 33 years and 213 days.
As enticing as his exploit and resume in the Portuguese league was back then, coming to Chelsea on the back of his successful spell at Porto was a big step which proved to be an unforgivable failure for him and the club having joined from West London club for a whopping €15.0m in 2011.
The Portuguese boss is currently out of job right now. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not a good manager anymore having resigned from his recent managerial post at Marseille in February due to his dissatisfaction with the club’s recruitment policy.
- Jose Mourinho – (AS Roma, €16.6m)
Current Giallorossi manager Jose Mourinho has continued to prove to the world with the way his Roma team start the new Serie A campaign like a house on fire with sublime goalscoring and aesthetic performances that rubbish the claim that the Portuguese have lost touch of his managerial skill.
The Portuguese follow Nagelsmann closely with £6.9m as the second most expensive manager in football having moved from Inter Milan to Real Madrid in 2010 with the latter breaking the 11 years record set by Mourinho in 2010 as the most expensive coach in football that year.
Mourinho’s stint at Tottenham Hotspur could be argued to be a failure. However, in his failure with the London club, some could also argue that he didn’t fail because he took them to the final of the Carabao Cup before he left for Roma in a surprising manner that took the footballing world by surprise with his choice of destination.
- Julian Nagelsmann – (Bayern Munich, €21.7m)
Nagelsmann didn’t suddenly become a brilliant manager out of the blues. The Bavarian-born made his name as an exciting gaffer during his days at Hoffenheim before crossing to RB Leipzig, where he did a more applaudable job taking them to the semi-finals of the biggest club football competition ‘Uefa Champions League.
The 34-year-old becomes the most expensive manager in the history of the game following his move from RB Leipzig to Bayern Munich for €21.7m after Hansi Flick agreed to terminate his contract in other to manage Die Mannschaft. A deal that chattered Jose Mourinho’s 11 years record moves from Inter to Real Madrid in 2010 for a whopping €16.6m.
Looking at how sublime Die Roten has been tearing and dominating their opponent under Nagelsmann this season, we could boldly say he’s already justifying the huge amount the Bayern spent in securing his services from Leipzig.
