Capello or Lippi: Who Has Achieved More?

It is quite difficult to compare the career path of Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi. Both have been successful coaches and both hail from the Italian peninsula. They both coached Juventus of Turin during their glittering managerial career, yet the similarities end there.

While Capello’s playing career far surpasses that of Lippi’s, the gap in accolades between the two greatly diminishes once we begin to analyze their coaching resumes. Don Fabio played for Roma, Juventus, and Milan (and SPAL prior to those three teams) while his counterpart Lippi’s playing days were confined to Sampdoria and Pistoiese. Capello wore the Italian national team’s shirt for over 30 games, but Lippi only made it as far as the U-23 team on a couple of occasions. Certainly Capello’s record as a player is much more impressive and includes Serie A titles as well as Coppa Italia trophies in contrast with Lippi’s empty cabinet as a player.

Moving on to coaching, Lippi’s World Cup title must certainly give him an edge over Capello in the coaching department since the World Cup is the crowning achievement of any coach and/or player. A player’s (and for that matter a manager’s) greatness is often associated with World Cup titles won. Leo Messi might currently be the best player in the world yet for him to be considered amongst the best ever he certainly needs to win the World Cup. Players like Maradona, Pele and Zidane have all done it and that is precisely why they are often mentioned in midst of the debate over the world’s best ever player. Perhaps a very comprehensive comparison between Zidane and Platini might emphasize even further the significance of winning the World Cup. Both Platini and Zidane won the European Championship with France as well as the Champions Cup (with Juventus and Real Madrid respectively), yet Zidane stands out for carrying France to the World Cup Final twice and winning it back in 1998. Consequently, it would be fair to say that at the moment Lippi ought to be considered as the more successful of the two coaches having won the World Cup in 2006.

Actually the circumstances and conditions during 2006 make Lippi’s coaching achievement all the more remarkable. Lippi’s own connections with Juventus as well as his son’s involvement in the football scandal in Serie A must have all loomed large in his thought process. To make things worse, most of the Italian national team’s players came from Juventus and Milan, two teams that were penalized as a result of the scandal. The Paul Newman lookalike did an admirable job both sheltering his players and channeling their focus in a positive way towards one objective which is winning the games on hand. In fact, players like G. Buffon, F. Cannavaro, G. Zambrotta and A. Pirlo all seemed to be enjoying their football and playing at their very best during the tournament in Germany. Lippi must also be credited with trusting Fabio Grosso who should be considered amongst the tournament’s best finds. The current Juve left-back scored the Azzurri’s first goal in the semi-final match against Germany and followed that up with the crucial penalty in the Final versus France in Berlin.

On the other hand, none of Capello’s achievements as a coach ought to be underestimated. Capello is a born winner and has shown that both as a player and as a manager. Capello has won everywhere he has coached from Milan to Roma and Juventus as well as Real Madrid. Currently Capello manages England’s national team and if he succeeds in carrying them all the way to the Winners’ podium in South Africa then very few can argue that he is not even better than the great Lippi. Marcello’s time with Inter was a failure while his CV prior to Juventus includes managing clubs such as Siena, Cesena and Atlanta. It could be argued that Capello has been fortunate to always coach clubs with financial muscle, but history shows that there are numerous cases of coaches failing at big clubs.

For the moment, Lippi’s 2006 victory gives him the edge over Capello yet no one should ignore Capello’s legitimate claims for ascendency in the coaching department. However, without a World Cup Winner’s Medal, Capello will not be able to surpass Marcello’s greatness. It could be argued that Lippi is also more ‘liked’ amongst Italian fans since Capello left both Roma and Juventus under clouds of controversy while his second stint with Milan was not a pleasant one.

Maybe the upcoming World Cup will serve as the crucial decider between Lippi and Capello. It would certainly be fascinating if the Final in South Africa pitted Capello’s England versus Lippi’s Italy with each coach calling the shots from their respective dugout!