The Big 9: Bundesliga winners as player and coach | OneFootball

Bundesliga winners as player and coach: Xabi Alonso, Hansi Flick, Niko Kovač in exclusive club

Lifting the Meisterschale is an honour enjoyed by a relatively small group of players, but among them is an even more exclusive club: those who have managed to repeat the feat as a manager. bundesliga.com gives you the rundown on this rarefied group of Bundesliga legends!

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The double-double club

Although there have been just nine figures to achieve the player/coach feat in the history of the Bundesliga, the last three of them have not only done so in relatively quick succession, but also with the distinction of having won German league-and-cup doubles in both roles.

Xabi AlonsoCoach: 2023/24 league-and-cup double with Bayer LeverkusenPlayer: 2014/15, 2015/16 (league and cup), 2016/17 with Bayern Munich

The most recent man to do it was of course Spain, Bayern, Real Madrid and Liverpool legend Xabi Alonso, who in 2023/24 helped Leverkusen shed their unenviable 'Neverkusen' moniker with a superbly accomplished season that saw them claim the domestic treble - the Bundesliga, the DFB Cup and the DFL Supercup.

That they also made it to the final of the UEFA Europa League spoke volumes about Alonso's tactical and leadership prowess - qualities that the former midfielder showed in abundance as he won everything on offer with Liverpool (including the Champions League) and Real before making the move to Bayern back in 2014.

In his three seasons under Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti, Alonso claimed three successive Bundesliga titles, notably adding the DFB Cup to the mix in 2015/16, before hanging up the boots and turning his attentions to what has so far proven a spectacularly successful coaching career.

Alonso won his first Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich, as a player. (AFP/Getty Images)

Hansi FlickCoach: 2019/20 (league and cup), 2020/21 with BayernPlayer: 1985/86 (league and cup), 1986/87, 1988/89, 1989/90 with Bayern

For current Barcelona coach Hansi Flick, it was much longer between drinks, but no less impressive when, in 2019/20, he completed his double-double at the helm of Bayern.

In his first season in charge at the Allianz Arena, the former Germany assistant coach (who helped Joachim Löw guide Die Nationalelf to glory at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil) led his star-studded squad to a 13-point league win, a 4-2 DFB Cup final triumph over Leverkusen and a 3-2 Supercup win over Borussia Dortmund - not to mention the 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League final. He then made it an unprecedented sextuple with victory in the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

That was exactly 20 years after Flick's last Bundesliga title, his fourth as a player, all of which were won with the Bayern side that dominated in the 80s. The former midfielder claimed his first Bundesliga title in his first season in Bavaria (1985/86), also clinching the DFB Cup, before going on to take league honours in three of the next four seasons.

Hansi Flick won it all as head coach of Bayern Munich. (imago images/Sven Simon)

Niko KovačCoach: 2018/19 league-and-cup double with BayernPlayer: 2002/03 league-and-cup double with Bayern

Like Flick, Niko Kovač - currently at the helm of Dortmund - completed his double-double with Bayern. The former Croatia midfielder had just one season at the helm of the club he played for from 2001 to 2003, but he got everything just right in a hugely successful 2018/19 campaign.

A thrilling title race saw Kovač's Bayern deny Klassiker rivals Dortmund by two points with a 5-1 drubbing of Eintracht Frankfurt on the final day, with the club's 19th DFB Cup title - and Kovač's double-double - following a week later thanks to a 3-0 win over RB Leipzig in the final.

This was 16 years after the Berlin native had enjoyed a stellar second season with Bayern as a player, bringing his tactical nous to bear as Ottmar Hitzfeld's side ran away with the league title, winning by 16 points before trumping Kaiserslautern 3-1 to lift the DFB Cup.

Nico Kovač (c.) celebrates Bayern Munich's 2002/03 Bundesliga title in traditional Bavarian garb. (imago)

Club men come through

There was also a spate of doubles in the early 2000s - three in four years - that saw two Bundesliga legends win gold as coach of a club they had turned out for as players, while another racked up successive league-and-cup doubles.

Felix MagathCoach: 2004/05, 2005/06 league-and-cup doubles with Bayern, 2008/09 with WolfsburgPlayer: 1978/79, 1981/82, 1982/83 with Hamburg

Felix Magath first made his name as gifted playmaker with Hamburg in the 1970s and 80s, helping the northern club to three Bundesliga titles in five years between 1979 and 1983, and his gift for reading and interpreting the game saw the Germany international make a successful transition to coaching once his playing days were over.

Following stints in the dugout for Hamburg, Nuremberg, Werder Bremen and Frankfurt, Magath found his first big coaching success with VfB Stuttgart. Taking the Swabians from relegation candidates to Bundesliga runners-up (2002/03) in the space of two seasons, Magath caught the eye of Bayern, who signed him in 2004.

What followed was unprecedented: never before had any team won back-to-back league-and-cup doubles in Germany, but that's exactly what Magath's side did. With the likes of Roy Makaay and Michael Ballack plundering goals in the league and Hasan Salihamidžić and Claudio Pizarro hitting the winners in successive cup finals, Bayern swept all before them and lifted Magath into some rarefied company.

Feliz Magath celebrates the 2005/06 Bundesliga title, his second in a row as Bayern head coach. ( via www.imago-images.de)

Thomas SchaafCoach: 2003/04 league-and-cup double with BremenPlayer: 1987/88, 1992/93 with Bremen

Although Schaaf went on to coach Frankfurt and Hannover after he completed his double, his entire footballing career up to that point had been spent at one club: Bremen. Arriving at the club's academy aged just 11, Schaff made 281 appearances for the Green-Whites over an incredible 17 seasons, with high points coming with Bundesliga titles in 1987/88 and 1992/93.

Going straight into the role of Werder's reserve coach once he hung up the boots in 1995, Schaaf got the senior-team gig - a job he would hold for 14 seasons - in 1999. In the 2003/04 season, with the attacking trio of Brazilian Aílton (28 league goals), Croatia's Ivan Klasnic (19) and France's Johan Micoud (15) the driving force, Bremen took top spot from Bayern on Matchday 15 and never looked back, ultimately clinching the title - and Schaaf's player-coach double - by six points.

Thomas Schaaf celebrates his first Bundesliga title, won with Werder Bremen in 1987/88. (Bongarts/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Matthias SammerCoach: 2001/02 with DortmundPlayer: 1991/92 with Stuttgart, 1994/95, 1995/96 with Dortmund

Sammer enjoyed a legendary career on the world and European stages, notably claiming the UEFA Euro 96 title with Germany and the UEFA Champions League title with Dortmund, but the fiery defender/ defensive midfielder also racked up the honours on the domestic scene with his beloved BVB.

Signing for the Black-Yellows on his return to Germany in January 1993 after a stint with Inter Milan, Sammer slotted right into coach Ottmar Hitzfeld's plans and it wasn't long before the silverware started to flow. Successive Bundesliga titles were secured in 1994/95 and 1995/96, with Sammer's performances helping him to win the 1996 Ballon d'Or. The Champions League following in 1996/97, but soon after Sammer suffered a career-ending knee injury and hung up the boots.

In 2000, he took the reins of Dortmund's senior team and by the end of the next season had completed his double - in spectacular fashion. Trailing Leverkusen with just two matches left in the season, Dortmund took top spot with a dramatic 4-3 win over Hamburg and held out to lift the Meisterschale with a 2-1 win over Bremen on the final day of the season.

Matthias Sammer (c.) holds up the Bundesliga Meisterschale after securing the title as coach in 2001/02. (Gunnar Berning/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Der Kaiser

Franz BeckenbauerCoach: 1993/94 with BayernPlayer: 1968/69 (league and cup), 1971/72, 1972/73, 1973/74 with Bayern

In a list full of legends, Franz Beckenbauer is perhaps the most storied of them all thanks to his legendary feats with Germany, with whom he won the FIFA World Cup as both a player and coach. But this should not overshadow his contribution to the Bundesliga, where he was an immense figure as a player, coach and director for Bayern.

The wily defender was a pillar of the Bayern side that dominated the late 60s and early 70s, claiming his first Bundesliga title in 1968/69 before nabbing three in a row from 1971 to 1974, a period that saw him also claim the 1972 UEFA European Championship and the 1974 FIFA World Cup - not to mention the first of his three Ballons d'Or (1972).

Add to that his part in the development of the sweeper role, which saw him bring his tactical awareness, versatility and elegance to bear in both defence and attack, and you might think that that's enough for one career. But no: in December 1993, Der Kaiser stepped in mid-season to take the reins at his beloved Bayern, steering the side to Bundesliga gold - by just a single point over Kaiserslautern - and becoming the first to win Bundesliga gold as coach and player with the same club.

Jupp Heynckes in 2013, with just some of the trophies he won at the Bayern helm that year. (2013 Getty Images)

The encore artist

Jupp HeynckesCoach: 1988/89, 1989/90, 2012/13 (league and cup), 2017/18 with BayernPlayer: 1970/71, 1974/75, 1975/76, 1976/77 with Borussia Mönchengladbach

A legend in his playing days with Gladbach, for whom he scored 218 goals in 308 matches across two spells in the club's heyday in the 60s and 70s, Jupp Heynckes went on to have even more success as a coach, with a career covering 39 years and 10 clubs. He had four spells as Bayern boss and - with the exception of a short-lived caretaker stint in 2009 - he won Bundesliga gold in all of them.

So, to add to the four titles he won as a player with Gladbach, Heynckes notched back-to-back Bundesliga titles as Bayern coach in 1988/89 and 1989/90 - before returning for another title in 2012/13 (to which he added the Champions League and DFB Cup) and then repeating the feat five years later with an eighth personal Bundesliga title in 2017/18 - at the ripe old age of 73!

The lone wolf

Helmut BenthausCoach: 1983/84 with StuttgartPlayer-coach: 1963/64 with Cologne

As the only player-coach on this list, Helmut Benthaus is the most efficient of all our legends in terms of quickly wrapping up his Bundesliga double as coach and player. He did both on the same day!

Leaving 1860 Munich for the dual role at Cologne at the beginning of the 1962/63 season, Benthaus led his side to the Oberliga West title before backing that up with gold in 1963/64 - the first-ever season of the Oberliga's replacement competition: the Bundesliga.

The famously studious Benthaus then moved to Switzerland for a long spell with FC Basel, again as player-coach, but he returned to Germany in 1982, with a purely coaching role at the helm of Stuttgart. In the second of three seasons with the club, Benthaus added oomph to his already complete double when his Swabians won the 1983/84 Bundesliga title, pipping Hamburg and Gladbach on goal difference alone.

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