World champions twice over: those who won as player and as coach
Only three men have lifted the World Cup as players and as coaches: Mário Zagallo, Franz Beckenbauer and Didier Deschamps.
Winning a World Cup as a player is the peak of a career. Doing it again from the dugout, as a coach, is a feat only three men have achieved in the whole of history.
The first was Brazil's Mário Zagallo. A champion as a player in 1958 and 1962 — he even scored in the 1958 final — he went on to coach Pelé's Brazil, who dazzled at Mexico 1970, regarded by many as the greatest team of all time.
The second was Germany's Franz Beckenbauer, «the Kaiser». Captain of West Germany's 1974 champions, he became national coach and won the title again in 1990, with a 1-0 win over Argentina in the Rome final.
The third is France's Didier Deschamps. He lifted the Cup as captain in 1998, in the historic 3-0 win over Brazil, and did it again as coach in 2018, guiding a young France to the title in Russia.
Following the deaths of Zagallo and Beckenbauer, both in January 2024, Deschamps is now the only living member of this exclusive club. A reminder that the gift of winning, on and off the pitch, is exceedingly rare.
Source: Wikipedia (Mário Zagallo; Franz Beckenbauer; Didier Deschamps).