WORLD RECORD FOR MIRCEA LUCESCU
Lucescu grabs another world record for coaches
Mircea Lucescu, whom we reported a month ago as the new world record holder for the longest return to the role of national team coach, has set another world record. This time - by the length of a coaching career in one national team.
After the Nations League match against Cyprus (3-0) on October 12 as a coach of the Romania, this period of time was 42 years 336 days for Lucescu. His debut was dated back to 11 November 1981 against Switzerland in the match that ended with a 0-0 draw.
(Interruptions in this position are not taken into account; only the dates of first and last games in the duty).
Thus, Lucescu beat by just 4 days the achievement of the Paraguayan Manuel Fleitas Solich whose coaching career in the native national team spanned 42 years 332 days.
Solich led ”Albirroja” for the first time in 1922 (as playing captain-coach), and for the last time in 1965 (failing to promote them to World Cup 1966).
Here, for the first time, we publish a historical ranking for coaches with the longest careers in a single national team.
Almost everyone on the list has the same nationality as the team. There are two exceptions: Karl Rappan, an Austrian, devoted a significant part of his life to the Swiss national team, and the German Gottlieb Göller to the Togolese.
Faouzi Benzarti (Tunisia) is the only one from the ranking currently active, apart from Lucescu.
| COACHES | LONGEST | CAREER IN ONE | NATIONAL TEAM | ||
| Coach | Team | Span | First Game | Last Game | |
| 1 | Mircea Lucescu | Romania | 42-336 | 11.11.1981 Switzerland 0-0 | 12.10.2024 Cyprus 3-0 |
| 2 | Manuel Fleitas Solich | Paraguay | 42-332 | 24.09.1922 Brazil 1-1 | 22.08.1965 Bolivia 1-2 |
| 3 | Juan Cutillas | Philippines | 37-075 | 09.08.1971 Hong Kong 1-2 | 23.10.2008 Cambodia 3-2 |
| 4 | Vittorio Pozzo | Italy | 36-037 | 29.06.1912 Finland 2-3 | 05.08.1948 Denmark 3-5 |
| 5 | Mario Zagallo | Brazil | 35-062 | 19.09.1967 Chile 1-0 | 20.11.2002 South Korea 3-2 |
| 6 | Ignacio Trelles | Mexico | 33-145 | 20.10.1957 Costa Rica 2-0 | 14.03.1991 Canada 3-0 |
| 7 | Óscar Tabárez | Uruguay | 33-050 | 27.09.1988 Ecuador 2-1 | 16.11.2021 Bolivia 0-3 |
| 8 | Faouzi Benzarti | Tunisia | 30-195 | 30.03.1994 Zaire 1-1 | 11.10.2024 Comoros 0-1 |
| 9 | Vujadin Boškov | Yugoslavia | 30-185 | 04.04.1971 Netherlands 2-0 | 06.10.2001 Luxembourg 6-2 |
| 10 | Marvin Rodríguez | Costa Rica | 30-159 | 14.09.1969 El Salvador 1-2 | 20.02.2000 Trinidad & Tobago 1-2 |
| 11 | Gottlieb Göller | Togo | 29-098 | 25.10.1970 Senegal 3-0 | 31.01.2000 Cameroon 1-0 |
| 12 | Conrado Miranda | El Salvador | 28-244 | 06.03.1961 Netherlands Antilles 0-0 | 05.11.1989 United States 0-0 |
| 13 | Sepp Herberger | Germany | 27-268 | 13.09.1936 Poland 1-1 | 07.06.1964 Finland 4-1 |
| 14 | Fatih Terim | Turkey | 27-061 | 11.04.1990 Denmark 0-1 | 11.06.2017 Kosovo 4-1 |
| 15 | Chelato Uclés | Honduras | 26-348 | 06.03.1980 Costa Rica 1-1 | 15.02.2007 Nicaragua 9-1 |
| 16 | Mohammed Anwar Elahee | Mauritius | 26-092 | 06.07.1970 Malawi 0-1 | 06.10.1996 Malawi 1-2 |
| 17 | Charles Boniface Mkwasa | Tanzania | 26-086 | 19.08.1990 Zaire 0-2 | 13.11.2016 Zimbabwe 0-3 |
| 18 | João Tavares da Silva | Portugal | 26-065 | 12.04.1931 Italy 0-2 | 16.06.1957 Brazil 0-3 |
| 19 | Karl Rappan | Switzerland | 26-053 | 19.09.1937 Austria 3-4 | 11.11.1963 France 2-2 |
| 20 | Billy Bingham | Northern Ireland | 26-027 | 21.10.1967 Scotland 1-0 | 17.11.1993 Ireland 1-1 |
| 21 | Cândido de Oliveira | Portugal | 25-354 | 26.12.1926 Hungary 3-3 | 14.12.1952 Argentina 1-3 |
| 22 | Rabah Saâdane | Algeria | 25-249 | 28.12.1984 Ghana 1-2 | 03.09.2010 Tanzania 1-1 |
| 23 | Shigemaru Takenokoshi | Japan | 25-221 | 13.05.1934 Dutch East Indies 1-7 | 20.12.1959 South Korea 1-0 |
| 24 | Ramiro Blacut | Bolivia | 25-130 | 10.07.1979 Paraguay 3-1 | 17.11.2004 Colombia 0-1 |
| 25 | Dick Advocaat | Netherlands | 25-066 | 09.09.1992 Italy 2-3 | 14.11.2017 Romania 3-0 |
| 26 | Nikita Simonyan | Soviet Union | 24-306 | 22.05.1963 Sweden 0-1 | 23.03.1988 Greece 4-0 |
| 27 | Ricardo Tomasino | El Salvador | 24-129 | 09.03.1954 Colombia 2-2 | 16.07.1978 Netherlands Antilles 1-0 |
| 28 | Hugo Meisl | Austria | 24-033 | 22.12.2012 Italy 3-1 | 24.01.1937 France 2-1 |