Last update 25 March, 2024 por Alberto Llopis

Which footballers were coaches-players at the same time? Ryan Giggs made the news at the end of the season 2013/14. The eternal United captain acted as player-coach at the Manchester club starring in the curious fact of taking himself out on the pitch in the last Premier match where he said goodbye to the fans of Old Trafford.

A widely used figure (more before than now) in English football and yet it has not spread much to other countries. In Hanged For Football, We take advantage of some of the most notorious cases of players who were coaches at the same time.. They executed what they ordered. But did they charge for one or two?

Footballers who were player-coaches

1- Luis Aragones: El Sabio de Hortaleza starred in the first sounded case of player-coach in Spain in his last year as a player. He did it just after finishing the final of the Copa de Europa de 1974 and he was only half a year holding that double position before his final retirement.

2- Ruud Güllit and Gianluca Vialli: the eternal Dutch midfielder led Chelsea on the benches between 1996 y 1998, period where he combined that direction also on the pitch. Until in 18 encounters knew how to combine that double task that he also repeated Gianluca Vialli for two years at club blue.

3- Romario: seeing Romario as a coach has its joke. But even more is seeing him multiply in his tasks. Sin embargo, this happened in 2007 with Vasco de Gama as a witness. Romario had already reached the 1000 goals as a professional and it was time to show his skills to the youngest.

4- George Weah: the Liberian made the most difficult yet. He led his national team between the year 2000 y 2002. His knowledge of the game from the bench had a recipient first: your speed up. Later he was president of Liberia.

5- Kenny Dalglish: the most famous case and also the one that gave the best result. For five years, Liverpool's Scottish forward knew how to double his efforts and perform effectively as a forward and as a coach. I win the Premier with Liverpool as player-coach.

Player-Coach	Equipo(s)	Season(s)
Ercole Carzino	Sampierdarenese	1931 – 1933
Hennes Weisweiler	1. FC Cologne	1949 – 1952
Adolfo Pedernera	Millonaries FC	1950 – 1954
Erwin Helmchen	VfB Lübeck	1950
Albert Batteux	Reims stadium	1950
Helmut Schön	Hertha BSC Berlín	1950 – 1951
Ken Armstrong	New Zealand	1958 – 1962
Helmut Benthaus	FC Basel	1965 – 1971
Kunishige Kamamoto	Yanmar Diesel (Cerezo Osaka)	1978 – 1984
Kenny Dalglish	Liverpool FC	1986 – 1991
Uwe Reinders	Eintracht Braunschweig	1987 – 1989
Trevor Francis	Queens Park Rangers FC Sheffield Wednesday FC	1988 – 1989 1991 – 1995
Glenn Hoddle	Swindon Town Chelsea FC	1991 – 1993 1993 – 1995
Alan Curbishley	Charlton Athletic FC	1991 – 1996
Alexander Zavarov	CO Saint-Dizier	1995 – 1998
Ruud Gullit	Chelsea FC	1996 – 1998
Davie Irons	Annan Athletic FC	1997 – 2002
Gianluca Vialli	Chelsea FC	1998 – 2000
Wynton Rufer	Football Kingz	1999 – 2002
Karl-Heinz Riedle	Fulham FC	2000
George Weah	Liberia	2000 – 2002
Paul Merson	Walsall FC	2004 – 2006
Marco Kurz	SC Pfullendorf	2005
Igor Dobrovolskiy	Tiligul-Tiras Tiraspol	2005 – 2006
Dorinel Munteanu	CFR Cluj	2005 – 2006
Paul Ince	Macclesfield Town FC	2006 – 2007
Romário	Vasco da Gama	2007
Russell Latapy	Falkirk FC	2007 – 2009
Sergio Ibarra	Scienceno Sport Huancayo	2010 2013 –
Neil Emblen	Waitakere United	2010 – 2012
Tony Jamieson	Tupa Maraerenga FC	2011 – 2012
Brian Shelley	Ballarat Red Devils Waitakere United	2011 – 2012 2013
Ryan Giggs	Manchester United FC	2014