Over the past two years, I’ve been compiling a historical dataset of football managers and club trophies for a project called Manager History.
It covers 35 selected clubs across England, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal, from 1955/56 to 2025/26.
Direct JSON:
https://managerhistory.com/data/snapshot.json
The file contains three linked collections:
clubs: club IDs, names and countries.coaches: manager IDs, names and nationality information.seizoenen: club-season records, a main manager ID, and flags for league titles, domestic cups and European trophies. Some records also include additional managers, interim appointments, dates and source links.
Some field names are Dutch. Trophy flags use Y/N; they are not counts of individual trophies.
I compiled the data with assistance from Gemini and Claude, alongside extensive manual checks using Wikipedia, Transfermarkt and other historical sources. It is a work in progress, not a fully verified reference database.
Important limitations:
- Five selected clubs per country, rather than complete leagues.
- One main manager per season; additional appointments are recorded where available, but coverage is incomplete.
- Historical gaps remain, particularly for Boavista and Braga.
- Manager career views only cover clubs included in the dataset.
- Club-season trophy flags should not automatically be interpreted as trophies personally won by the main manager, especially in seasons with managerial changes.
I’d welcome help with three things:
- Spotting incorrect manager assignments, missing appointments or trophy flags, ideally with a source.
- Finding reliable historical sources for older Portuguese seasons.
- Improving the structure for seasons with multiple managers and uncertain appointment dates.
Which missing clubs would add the most useful comparisons? I’m also interested in suggestions for making the data easier to analyse.
Methodology:
https://managerhistory.com/data-methodology.html
Interactive visualisation:
https://managerhistory.com
Disclosure: I created the dataset and website. The JSON currently identifies its export date as 2 October 2026.
submitted by /u/kingjaynl
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