Vicente del Bosque

Few international football coaches are blessed with as richly talented a group of players at their disposal as Spain’s. Any team featuring Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Iker Casillas and Gerard Piqué will be a force to be reckoned with, but by any standards, Vicente del Bosque has achieved extraordinary things, leading his team to the European Championship title in 2012, two years after lifting the World Cup. Del Bosque’s predecessor, Luis Aragonés, started Spain’s current domination of international football by winning the 2008 European title. But former Real Madrid player and coach Del Bosque has managed to keep his players both united and hungry for further glory. And in the process, he has taken some audacious decisions, such as sending his team out without a striker for much of the 2012 European tournament. Some queried the tactics of such a move; others called Spain’s brand of tiki-taka football boring. But when the team beat Italy 4-0 in the final, Vicente del Bosque’s name was once again etched in the history books.