Uzbekistan head coach Fabio Cannavaro won the World Cup as a player in 2006 and subsequently won the Ballon d’Or that year. | Photo Credit: AFP

The Ballon d’Or is regarded as football’s highest individual honour. Yet, while dozens of players have achieved this remarkable feat, only four such winners had previously gone on to switch from the playing field to commanding the touchline.

With Fabio Cannavaro newly installed at the helm 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 its FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign against Colombia.

Spanish striker Luis Suárez was the pioneer of this elite list. A Ballon d’Or winner in 1960, he later took charge of the Spain national team from 1988 to 1991, guiding them to the Round of 16 at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Perhaps the most iconic achiever on this list is Franz Beckenbauer. A World Cup winner as a player with West Germany in 1984, Der Kaiser went on to replicate this success as a manager. In his maiden World Cup as coach, the Nationalmannschaft stormed into the final, succumbing to a Maradona-inspired Argentina. Four years later, Beckenbauer’s men settled their score, beating Argentina 1-0 as the German carved out a unique place in history as only the second to win the World Cup both as manager and player.

The next two to follow were Oleg Blokhin and Marco van Basten, who managed the Ukraine and Netherlands national teams, respectively. Under Blokhin’s management, Ukraine reached new heights, qualifying for its inaugural World Cup in 2006 and making an impressive run until the quarterfinal, whilst Oranje, on the other hand, disappointingly crashed out to Portugal in the Round of 16.

List of Ballon D’or winners to coach at the FIFA World Cup

• Luis Suárez - Spain (1990)
• Franz Beckenbauer - West Germany (1990)
• Oleg Blokhin - Ukraine (2006)
• Marco van Basten - Netherlands (2006)
• Fabio Cannavaro - Uzbekistan (2026)

Published on Jun 18, 2026