This past May marked 21 years since Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool pulled off one of football’s greatest fightbacks, overturning a three-goal deficit to beat AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League final.
Time flies.
He arrived on Merseyside after a glittering spell with Valencia, where he won two La Liga titles and the UEFA Cup.
Though he never captured the Premier League with Liverpool, his European record flourished and cemented his reputation as one of the continent’s elite managers in the early to mid-2000s.
Under his guidance, the Reds consistently reached the latter stages of the Champions League, including another final in 2007.
He later lifted the Europa League with Chelsea in 2013, and added multiple domestic trophies during spells in England and Italy with Inter and Napoli.
Benitez is widely praised for meticulous defensive organization—vital at every level, and especially in international football, where there’s limited time to build complex possession structures.
Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have often lauded his tactical acumen, calling him the best coach they worked under—though those days are now some way behind us.
Since leaving Anfield in 2010, Benitez has held nine roles, with six of those stints lasting less than a year.
He was beloved during a three-year tenure at Newcastle, but exited quickly at clubs including Inter, Real Madrid, Everton and Celta Vigo.