The Ballon d’Or is considered the highest individual award in football. But while dozens of players have achieved this remarkable feat, only four such winners had previously moved from the playing field to commanding the sidelines.
With Fabio Cannavaro recently taking charge of the Uzbekistan football team, the 52-year-old joins an elite company of Ballon d’Or winners to have coached at a World Cup as his side opened the 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Colombia.
Spanish striker Luis Suárez was the pioneer of this elite list. He won the Ballon d’Or in 1960 and later took charge of the Spanish national team from 1988 to 1991, guiding them to the round of 16 of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Perhaps the most iconic achiever on this list is Franz Beckenbauer. A World Cup winner as a player for West Germany in 1984, The Emperor went on to repeat this success as a manager. In his first World Cup as a coach, the National team stormed into the final, succumbing to a Maradona-inspired Argentina. Four years later, Beckenbauer’s men made their mark, beating Argentina 1-0, while the German carved out a unique place in history as the only runner-up to win the World Cup, both as a manager and as a player.
The next two to follow were Oleg Blokhin and Marco van Basten, who managed the national teams of Ukraine and the Netherlands respectively. Under Blokhin’s leadership, Ukraine reached new heights, qualifying for the first World Cup in 2006 and making an impressive run to the quarter-finals, while the Dutch team suffered a disappointing defeat to Portugal in the round of 16.
List of Ballon D’or winners set to coach at the FIFA World Cup
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Luis Suarez – Spain (1990)
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Franz Beckenbauer – West Germany (1990)
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Oleg Blokhin – Ukraine (2006)
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Marco van Basten – Netherlands (2006)
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Fabio Cannavaro – Uzbekistan (2026)
Published on June 18, 2026
