Frank Lampard is the latest manager to take over a club in the middle of the season
After only taking over as managers in the middle of the season, some managers went on to win the UEFA Champions League
Here’s a list of four managers who took up their managerial roles mid-season and went ahead to win the Champions League

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One of the most prestigious and well-known tournaments in club football is the UEFA Champions League. Its history books are full of amazing campaigns from some of the best clubs in Europe that ended with trophies.

Some had managers with experience, while others were taking on the competition for the first time.

For the purposes of this discussion, we will concentrate on managers who won the Champions League and were hired in the middle of the campaign.

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Di Matteo, Zidane and Tuchel @getty — Midseason managers
Source: Twitter

Some managers have won the UEFA Champions League after only taking over their managerial positions in the middle of the season, despite the extremely demanding shifts involved in keeping a place in European competitions and surviving at home.

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Since the 1992/1993 season, when the competition was renamed the UEFA Champions League, the following four managers have accomplished this feat:

Di Matteo

Di Matteo played for Chelsea for six years and became a cult hero there. Chelsea appointed him as assistant manager to the senior team in 2011, adding support to the efforts of the newly appointed manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Both domestically and in Europe, the season got off to a good start, but as results got poorer, things turned sour.

Conflicts between the senior players and the manager resulted in Villas-Boas' appointment being terminated on March 4. Di Matteo took over as caretaker manager for the rest of that season.

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Following his mid-season appointment, the Italian would go on to permanently turn the situation around.

Notably, his Chelsea team defeated Napoli 4-1 to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit in their round-of-16 of the UEFA Champions League.

The Blues went on to achieve stunning victories in the quarterfinal and semifinal against Benfica and Barcelona respectively.

Chelsea under Di Matteo advanced to the final and crossed swords against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, the German team's home turf.

But after the game ended 1-1 in regulation, Chelsea were victorious on the night as a Didier Drogba penalty ended the ensuing shoot-out.

The feat no doubt earned Roberto Di Matteo a legend status as a Champions League winning manager at Chelsea.

Zinedine Zidane

Between 2001 and 2006, Zidane was a player for Real Madrid. In January 2016, he made a comeback as the senior team manager, replacing Rafael Benitez.

Zidane got to work right away and tried to raise the team's performance in every match.

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The Frenchman had a strong domestic league record, including an El Classico victory that ended Barcelona's streak of 39 games without a loss.

Interestingly, Zidane is one of the managers who won the Champions League as a player as well.

However, his most incredible feat in the same season was the team’s amazing run in Europe which led to a Champions League final, where they faced city rivals Athletico Madrid.

Real Madrid won the match on penalties, giving the Los Blancos their eleventh Champions League triumph.

Zidane established a rare record among contemporary managers when he won the following two finals of the same competition.

Hansi Dieter-Flick

Former Bayern Munich player Flick (1985–1990) served as the German National Team's assistant manager for eight years, from 2006–2014.

With manager Joachim Low in charge, Flick had a remarkable run of success that included winning the 2014 World Cup trophy.

After a brief stint as the German Football Association's sporting director, Flick joined Bayern Munich as the team's assistant manager on July 1, 2019. Then the Germans had appointed Niko Kovac as the head coach.

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Things quickly changed when Kovac left Bayern on good terms a few months later. On November 3, 2019, Bayen elevated Flick to the position of interim manager.

On December 22 of the same year, the German club officially announced Flick as the new permanent manager.

Bayern under Hansi Flick quickly established itself as an unstoppable force.

During his rookie campaign, they took pleasure in winning streaks across all leagues, but especially in the UEFA Champions League.

The German giants eventually prevailed with Flick, going the entire season without suffering a loss or a draw.

Bayern, which also won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, defeated Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon to finish the season with a continental treble.