It seems to me that many of the top football (soccer) coaches and managers had only mediocre careers as players. For example, Ferguson, Mourinho, Wenger, and Scolari never played in an international match. Tito Vilanova was another of these.

Vilanova started out playing in the youth team at Barcelona, and then he had two seasons in the Barcelona B team in the Secunda Division of La Liga. He then played for several other Spanish sides, but the only period he had in the Primera Division was at Celta Vigo, where he made just 26 first-team appearances in three seasons.

His coaching career did not begin well. In 2003, he was appointed at Palafrugell, a team in the fourth tier of Spanish football, and they were relegated to the Primera Catalana division. But he plugged away, and his big break came when, in 2007, he was given the job of assistant manager of the Barcelona B team under Pep Guardiola. The following year, Guardiola and Vilanova were moved up to run the Barcelona first team and, in their first season in charge, they won the treble of the Primera Division, the Copa del Rey, and the UEFA Champions League, a feat no other Spanish team has achieved before or since.

In November 2011, Vilanova was diagnosed with cancer, and a tumor was removed from his throat. He seemed to make good progress after that.

When Guardiola left Barcelona in the summer of 2012, Vilanova was promoted to the manager’s job but, halfway through his first season, the cancer returned. He took a ten-week break for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and returned to work in March 2013, in time to see Barcelona win La Liga title again, losing only two league matches all season. In July 2013, Vilanova announced that he would have to stand down as manager of Barcelona, and he died on April 25, 2014, at the age of 45.

Allezblancs, Bill Schenley, Deceased Hose, Dianagram, and Keister Button kept their eyes on the ball and scored 18 points each.

--Allezblancs