Marcelo Bielsa

Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera earned the nickname El Loco, the madman, for a devotion to attacking, high-pressing football that reshaped how the game is coached more than it filled his own trophy cabinet. He won three Argentine league titles, two with his boyhood club Newell's Old Boys and one with Vélez Sarsfield, then took charge of Argentina and led them to Olympic gold in 2004 in Athens. A bold, admired spell in charge of Chile followed, before Athletic Bilbao, where he reached the 2012 Europa League and Copa del Rey finals but lost both.

His methods run through modern management. Pep Guardiola has called him the best coach in the world, and Mauricio Pochettino, who played under him at Newell's and Espanyol, counts him a mentor, as do Diego Simeone and Marcelo Gallardo.

Leeds is where the myth took hold. Across three and a half years he turned a mid-table Championship club into promotion winners, ending a 16-year exile from the top flight, then a ninth-place Premier League side playing breathless, man-to-man football. He became part of the city as much as the club: he lived simply near the ground, queued in the local supermarket, and once had his players spend three hours collecting litter to grasp what a ticket costs a working fan. When he was sacked in February 2022 the city mourned, a mural of him still watches over Leeds, and the stands sing his name. He took over Uruguay in 2023 and reached the 2026 World Cup, but stepped down after a group-stage exit without a win.