Five former football players now making their mark on the touchline as coaches
A photograph from a UEFA Champions League clash between Barcelona and Manchester City has taken on a completely different meaning years later.
In the picture are Cesc Fabregas, Aleksandar Kolarov, Martin Demichelis, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany, five players who were once battling for supremacy on the pitch but have since moved into coaching.
And remarkably, all five have now found their way back to the Champions League, this time from the dugout.
Fabregas is currently in charge of Como and faced one of the men in the photograph, Demichelis, when Como met RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Thursday, September 10, 2026.
Demichelis is now the German club's head coach, having taken charge in the summer.
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Kompany has climbed to one of the biggest managerial jobs in European football. The former Manchester City captain is now coaching Bayern Munich, continuing his transition from an iconic defender to one of the game's most prominent young managers.
Toure's journey has been historic in its own right. The former Ivory Coast and Barcelona midfielder became the first African head coach to lead a team in the Champions League's main phase when Slovan Bratislava faced Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
Even Kolarov has remained involved at the highest level, working as an assistant coach and experiencing Champions League football from the technical area.
What was once simply a photograph of five elite footballers now captures something much bigger: five players from one Champions League era who have gone on to begin writing their stories from the other side of the touchline.
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