When you consider who have been the top coaches in the 2024-25 Bundesliga season, there really is only one place to begin.
So let’s start at the very top.
It’s obvious to include the Belgian Vincent Kompany on this list, not least because he has just reclaimed the league title for Bayern Munich in his maiden season at the club.
Critics could, legitimately, point to the fact that he arrived at the country’s biggest club with the country’s biggest budget and the capacity to take players from sides who finished above them in the standings last season (Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart) – and they’d be right about that too.
Yet it should be remembered that Kompany wasn’t guaranteed to be a success in Bavaria.
He could have arrived with an inferiority complex given he was reportedly well down on the club’s preferred list to replace now England boss Thomas Tuchel.
Furthermore, there were some serious reservations at how he would cope so soon after two years at Burnley in which he impressed at Championship level but was left wanting in the Premier League as the Clarets went straight back down without ever seriously looking like they could stay up.
Twelve months on and it’s fair to say the former Manchester City captain has impressed and his record speaks volumes.
The Bavarians have been in first place ever since just the third week of the campaign and chalked up 25 wins from 34 games – only losing twice – and scoring a league-high 99 goals.
He also helped ensure England captain Harry Kane, who netted 36 times during his debut campaign in Germany, continued to be a goalscoring machine and, last month, he became the fastest player to hit 60 goals in the competition, doing so in 60 appearances to break Erling Haaland’s record, set while at Borussia Dortmund, by five games. He also registered 15 assists in that time to average a goal involvement every 72 minutes.
So yes, despite their clear advantages over their rivals, it would be churlish of this SBOTOP writer not to mention Kompany in any discussion about best Bundesliga bosses this term.
Of course, while Bayern have delivered Bundesliga 2025 highlights aplenty, there are other achievements which, in my view, deserve equal praise.
It would have taken a brave man or woman to study the Bundesliga 2025 betting odds and have Eintracht Frankfurt in their top three.
Die Adler finished sixth in the Bundesliga last season but they were never in the hunt for a Champions League spot and finished a whopping 16 points behind fifth-place Borussia Dortmund.
Fast forward 12 months and a significant improvement has been made with 13 more points as they secured third place, three clear of Dortmund, which means Champions League football next term.
This is the first time they have booked their place in the tournament via their league finish and so much credit goes to manager Dino Toppmöller who has extended his contract at the club until 2028.
In his first season as a Bundesliga manager in 2023/24, Toppmöller took the side to sixth and back into European football.
He has now raised the bar again and simultaneously engineered a run to the Europa League quarter-finals, integrating youngsters such as Nathaniel Brown, Nnamdi Collins, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya and Oscar Højlund into this season’s Champions League charge, all the while losing star man Egyptian star Omar Marmoush in January.
As I say, there have been a number of fine achievements this term and, amidst Bayern reclaiming the crown, it’s easy to forget that, despite a failed title defence, Bayer Leverkusen still only lost three games and were unbeaten away from home for the second successive season.
They have also acted astutely as it looks like Erik ten Hag will replace the soon-to-depart Xabi Alonso.
However, for me, the top manager going for 2024-25 should go to FSV Mainz manager Bo Henriksen who has done a fine job since arriving at the Mewa Arena in February last year.
First, he steered them away from trouble with a nine-match unbeaten run and then, after a slow start this term, they turned things around.
For Mainz to climb from 13th place in the table to sixth spot is the reason why.
It’s the fifth time the Carnival club have earned a place in Europe and the first since competing in the group stage of the Europa League in 2016/17. Three of the previous years have also seen them enter qualifying rounds, although they only progressed to the main stage once before.
To pip RB Leipzig for that spot this time around adds extra kudos.
They are my trio of standout Bundesliga bosses this term and Henriksen tops it!
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