Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp & Mauricio Pochettino Named on 2019 Best FIFA Men's Coach Shortlist
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp are to do battle on an individual level after both being named on the 2019 Best FIFA Men's Coach 10-man shortlist alongside fellow Premier League boss Mauricio Pochettino, Brazil coach Tite and Ajax coach Erik ten Hag.
Guardiola's Manchester City and Klopp's Liverpool gave football fans one of the greatest domestic title races in history last season, with neither side barely putting a foot wrong.
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Guardiola went on to lay his hands on the Premier League trophy, becoming the first manager in a decade to retain it, but Klopp became a Champions League winner for the first time soon after.
The rest of the shortlist is full of winners and/or high achievers, with Pochettino recognised for guiding Tottenham to the club's first ever Champions League final. Similarly, there is a place for Ten Hag after his exciting young Ajax side stunned Europe to reach the semi finals.
Tite is nominated off the back of Brazil winning the Copa America on home soil this summer, while there are two other international coaches who have won silverware in 2019 in Portugal's Fernando Santos, Nations League winner, and Algeria's AFCON winner Djamel Belmadi.
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Argentine pair Marcelo Gallardo and Ricardo Gareca also feature. Gallardo steered River Plate to Copa Libertadores glory in difficult circumstances in December, while Gareca's Peru defied expectation to reach a first Copa America final since 1975.
France boss Didier Deschamps is on the shortlist after his World Cup winning-team's consistently good results.
Fans can already vote for their top three, with the fan vote equally weighted alongside votes from journalists, national team captains and national team coaches. FIFA's window of consideration for nominees was 16 July 2018 to 19 July 2019 inclusive.
The winner will be announced at the annual FIFA Gala, this year held in Milan on 23 September.
