Igor Tudor is a leftfield appointment as Tottenham’s interim boss and his name has sent us into a Euro 2004 wormhole. How many other players from the tournament are now managers?
Tudor was part of Croatia’s squad for the finals and has since gone on to manage Juventus and Lazio, without much success.
As Spurs nail their colours to the mast, we’ve trawled through each team at Euro 2004 to pick out those who are currently managers.
Note: we’ve excluded the likes of Xavi, Xabi Alonso and Zinedine Zidane, who are currently without a job. We’ve excluded Frank Lampard for being too obvious.
Fabio Cannavaro
Kicking off with a familiar name, Cannavaro is now manager of Uzbekistan and preparing the Central Asians for their debut World Cup later this year.
Several observers have questioned the former defender’s suitability for the role, but Uzbekistan have talent and are capable of shocking Portugal and Colombia in the first round.
Back in 2004, Cannavaro was part of a star-studded Italy squad that flunked out in the group stages in Portugal.
Italy played some sublime football against Sweden, but were held 1-1 thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s backheeled equaliser.
Failure to beat Denmark and a late win over Bulgaria weren’t enough to stave off humiliation. Giovanni Trappatoni paid with his job for being too negative.
To this day, several Italians believe the two Scandinavians conspired to draw their final match 2-2 and eliminate the Azzurri.
Willy Sagnol
France were another big nation to underperform at Euro 2004.
Entering the tournament as holders, the French did just enough in every group match before being drummed out by Greece in the quarter-finals.
Sagnol was part of a ridiculously stacked squad, but couldn’t have taken much inspiration from the questionable charms of future Spurs boss Jacques Santini.
The ex-Bayern Munich defender is now manager of Georgia and led them to the knockout rounds of Euro 2024.
Sadly, the free-wheeling Georgians have already been eliminated from World Cup qualifying.
Niko Kovac
Kovac was Croatia’s captain at these Euros, drawing with Switzerland and France before a Wayne Rooney-inspired England beat them 4-2 in their final group match.
After making 83 appearances for his country, Kovac retired from international football in 2008 and has since enjoyed a successful managerial career.
He took Croatia to the 2014 World Cup and has managed four Bundesliga teams – Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and now Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund have a reputation for being flimsy, but they are currently second and just three points behind Bayern in the table. They also face Atalanta in their Champions League play-off.
Miroslav Klose
The first major surprise on our list. We had to do a double-take when Klose’s current employment status hit our synapses.
Famous for being the top scorer in World Cup history, Klose was significantly less successful at Euro 2004 as Germany exited in the group stages.
Far from a vintage German squad, a respectable draw with the Netherlands was followed by an embarrassing stalemate with Latvia and defeat to the Czech Republic reserves.
He retired after an underrated five-year spell at Lazio in the mid-2010s.
He’s now the manager of FC 1. Nurnburg, one of several fallen giants that populate the second tier of German football.
They are currently mid-table, but are closer to the relegation zone than the promotion places.
David Albeda
Pre Tiki-taka Spain were an infuriating mix of talent and neurosis, with Euro 2004 proving no exception.
A 1-0 thrashing of Russia was followed by a draw with Greece and a defeat to hosts Portugal to leave the Spanish making an early flight home.
Albeda started all three matches in midfield, just months after winning La Liga with Rafa Benitez’s Valencia.
He’s now in charge of Villarreal’s B team, who play in the third tier of Spanish football. It’s a weird and wonderful system, but we don’t have a spare decade to explain it to you.
Hakan Yakin
Switzerland are now part of the furniture at major tournaments, but Euro 2004 was their first finals in eight years.
A forgettable one-goal, one-point campaign failed to hint at their future durability, but Yakin impressed in small bursts.
He’s now in charge of FC Schaffhausen in the third tier of Swiss football. Yakin had been the assistant, caretaker and permanent manager of the club before rejoining in 2025.
Perhaps the nearby Rhine Falls in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Europe’s largest waterfall, is keeping Yakin emotionally tethered to the place.
Michael Reiziger
More synonymous with the wonderful 1990s Ajax and Netherlands teams, Reiziger was months away from joining Middlesbrough when Euro 2004 swung around.
The Dutch were arguably the most forgettable semi-finalists in the competition’s history, winning one game in 90 minutes against Latvia and being easily defeated by Portugal.
Reiziger was benched for the first two matches, but Johnny Heitinga’s red card against the Czechs – in the best international match of the 21st century – saw him return to the starting XI from then on.
Now aged 52, Reiziger is the manager of the Netherlands under-21 team. They reached the semis of last summer’s Euros, losing to eventual winners England.
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