Coaches that won the Bundesliga in their first full season | OneFootball

Vincent Kompany, Xabi Alonso and the coaches that won the title in their first full Bundesliga seasons

Bayern Munich's record of just two losses on their way to this season's Bundesliga title is seriously impressive, but even more so when you consider that this is Vincent Kompany's first season in the league. The Belgian has added his name to the list of great coaches to win the Bundesliga in their first full season in Germany, so bundesliga.com takes a look at that exclusive list.

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Vincent Kompany

Having suffered relegation from the Premier League with Burnley in the 2023/24 season, Kompany’s appointment at the Allianz Arena following the departure of Thomas Tuchel did raise some eyebrows. The Bayern hierarchy saw the bigger picture however. Kompany is a young coach who had already made a strong impression at both of his former clubs. In his first role as a manager at Belgian side Anderlecht, he averaged 1.7 points per game, losing just 19 times from almost 100 games over two years, before returning Burnley to the Premier League.

Kompany's Bayern side have been almost perfect this season, and have managed to balance the league's best attack with the best defence. (DFL/Getty Images/Sebastian Widmann)

In their 2022/23 Championship-winning season, the Lancashire side racked up a jaw-dropping 101 points, just five points off from the league record and 10 points more than second placed Sheffield United. Not only did they win the league, but they did so in style, playing fluid, attractive football that has now made its way to the Bundesliga. Kompany has only built on his reputation in his first season in Germany, losing just two league games and scoring 93 goals – 25 more than any other side.

It's not all about attacking though, as Bayern also have the league’s best defence, although this may not come as a surprise given Kompany’s playing career as one of the world's best centre-backs.

Hansi Flick was an assistant coach with the national team for eight years, a period which concluded by lifting the 2014 World Cup trophy. (imago sportfotodienst/imago/Ulmer/Teamfoto)

Xabi Alonso

The Spaniard also had limited management experience before his arrival in the Bundesliga, in fact far less than Kompany, with no senior experience coaching at professional level. Before taking over at a struggling Bayer Leverkusen in the 2022/23 season, Alonso’s only coaching experience was with Real Sociedad’s B team in the Spanish third tier, however, this was all that was needed to grab the attention of those in charge at Leverkusen. After an impressive end to his first few months in the Bundesliga, taking the side from 17th to sixth, the former Bayern midfielder then did the unimaginable.

Carlo Ancelotti's taste for success found it's way to Bayern Munich in 2016, where he also mentored a certain future Bundesliga coach in Xabi Alonso. (Peter Fastl/DeFodi.de/imago/DeFodi)

The 2023/24 season saw Leverkusen win their first ever Bundesliga title, a feat which they achieved while going unbeaten throughout the entire season – and it didn’t stop there! Die Werkself also went all the way in the DFB Cup, their first since 1993, as well as reaching the UEFA Europa League final, which, although they didn’t win, was their first European final since 2002.

The dominance that his side displayed in his first full season as a coach captivated fans from all over the globe, not just Bundesliga afficionados, and put Alonso in his sides firmly into the history books.

Pep Guardiola has experienced success wherever he's been, and his time at Bayern was no different. (2016 DFL)

Hansi Flick

Probably one of very few coaches to take a break from the game to run a sports shop in his hometown, Flick has certainly had a unique managerial career. Starting off at his local club Bammental, Flick spent four years at the now sixth-tier side, before becoming a serial Baden Cup winner with Hoffenheim, then of Germany’s fifth tier.

However, after leaving Hoffenheim in 2005, he spent 14 years out of the managerial hotseat, before returning to win the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League with Bayern in the 2019/20 season, having taking over from Niko Kovač after his November departure.

While his time in Bavaria was brief, Louis Van Gaal still managed to add to Bayern's trophy cabinet. (imago sportfotodienst)

Those 14 years saw Flick work as an assistant coach and sporting director at Red Bull Salzburg, where he was number two to Giovanni Trapattoni, and even worked alongside Bundesliga legend Lothar Matthäus.

He then lifted the 2014 FIFA World Cup trophy as Joachim Löw’s assistant, before officially becoming the world’s best club coach after that first trophy-laden season with Bayern. Flick didn’t stop there though, adding a Supercup, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Supercup and another Bundesliga title (in his only actual full season at the helm) to his collection before becoming Germany, and now Barcelona’s, head coach.

Trophies aside, Van Gaal also had a huge impact on the career of current Bayern legend Thoman Müller (r.), as well as David Alaba. (imago / Ulmer/Cremer)

Carlo Ancelotti

Within Ancelotti’s long and glittering career which has taken him across Europe’s elite clubs, is a one-and-a-bit seasons spell in Munich in 2016/17.

Much like his spells at Juventus, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, Ancelotti’s time at Bayern was short, but sweet. The gleam of silverware won in past European adventures also shone on his time at the Allianz Arena, where he picked up the Bundesliga title by a 15-point margin, as well as two domestic Supercups.

Ernst Happel brought the Bundesliga title and European Cup to Hamburg, one of many titles that mean he will always be remembered as a managerial great. (imago)

Pep Guardiola

In between his historic achievements with Barcelona and current club Manchester City, including winning six trophies in one calendar year with his boyhood club and then breaking the Premier League points record, Guardiola graced the Allianz Arena with his managerial magic between 2013 and 2016.

His first Bundesliga season saw him take Bayern to the title with 90 points, 19 clear of second placed Borussia Dortmund, all whilst conceding just 23 goals.

Branko Zebec joined the Bundesliga after just one season in management, but that didn't phase him, and he picked up the league title in his first season. (via www.imago-images.de)

Having very nearly set a new points record, his side then claimed the following two titles, collecting 167 points, scoring 160 goals and conceding just 35 over the course of the 2014/15 and 2015/16 campaigns. Guardiola’s dominance also extended to the DFB Cup, of which he picked up two in his time in Bavaria, as well as a UEFA Supercup and a Club World Cup.

Despite his experiences either side of his time at Bayern, Guardiola was full of praise for the club and the impact that it had on him: “I am proud to have made the decision to come here. I am now a better coach and a better person”, he said.

Louis van Gaal

The Dutch tactician spent two years as Bayern boss between 2009 and 2011, following previous successes with Ajax and Barcelona, which included a 1994/95 Champions League triumph with the former, one of 11 honours won there, and consecutive LaLiga titles in 1997/98 and 1998/99.

His time in Bavaria was equally successful, winning the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Supercup trifecta in his short time at the Allianz Arena.

Aside from the silverware, Van Gaal also gave kickstarted the careers of Thomas Müller and David Alaba. Müller has gone on to become the club’s record appearance maker and the league’s record assist provider with 178 of them to date, while Alaba picked up 27 major honours in his 13 years at the club before departing for Real Madrid.

Speaking on Van Gaal’s impact on his career, Bayern legend Müller said: “When we talk my biggest influence I have to say Van Gaal, he threw me in the deep end.”

Ernst Happel

Happel is a managerial great, so much so that his name sits upon the home of the Austria national team, the Ernst Happel Stadion, in Vienna. Among the triumphs that have placed his name in football’s history books are two Bundesliga titles with Hamburg (1981/82, 1982/83), a DFB Cup win in 1987 and the European Cup, also in the 1982/83 season.

Happel’s first Bundesliga title with Hamburg was won in his first season in the league, and saw them score 95 goals and lose just four games on the way to lifting the trophy. They fell to defeat just twice the following league season, before recording the first, and only, European triumph in the club’s history.

Future Bundesliga winning coach Felix Magath scored the winner for Happel’s HSV, who edged past a Juventus side including Michel Platini with a 1-0 win.

Branko Zebec

Following the conclusion of a 22-year playing career, former Yugoslavia international Zebec jumped straight into coaching, taking charge of Dinamo Zagreb in 1966. He only spent one year at Dinamo, but made quite the impression, winning the Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1967.

He joined Bayern in 1968, and immediately took a team including greats such as Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller to a league and cup double, before moving on to Bundesliga rivals VfB Stuttgart in 1970. Zebec’s German adventure continued on from there, as he went on to manage Eintracht Braunschweig, Hamburg (where he won another Bundesliga title), Eintracht Frankfurt and Dortmund.

Georg Knöpfle

Following his DFB Cup win with Werder Bremen in 1961, two years before the Bundesliga launched, Knöpfle was chosen to lead Cologne into the league's inaugural season in 1963/64. Cologne marked Knöpfle's seventh position as head coach in Germany, having also managed the likes Hamburg and Bayern, but was the scene of his first, and only, league trophy.

Knöpfle and the Billy Goats claimed the first ever Bundesliga title with just two losses from 30 games, and finished nine places above his former club Bremen thanks to the efforts of 1954 World Cup winner Hans Schäfer & Co. Knöpfle departed two years later in 1966 to return to Hamburg as their director of football, having led the Cathedral City club to second- and fifth- placed finishes in his final seasons in charge.

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