Top 10 Youngest Manager in Premier League Ever (Ranked)

The English Premier League has been widely considered the Pinnacle of club football, a place for players and managers to showcase their excellence in the best league in the world. This tradition has sustained and grown over the years, and the league is still home to the world’s most elite tacticians. Over the years, the fashion of appointmenting younger managers has been welcomed by the league, as the average age of head coaches continues to drop in the English top flight.

With more and more clubs putting their faith in young and promising head coaches, the latest addition to this esteem list is Fabian Hurzeler of Brighton & Hove Albion, as of the 2024/25 season, the league only has six managers above the age of 50 years. Notably, the trend of signing young minds in coaching is not new for the Premier League as it has been going on ever since the inception of the league in the mid-1990s up to the present day. Let’s take a closer look at the 10 Youngest manager in Premier League history.

List of Youngest Premier League Managers

With more first and second-division clubs signing younger managers, there is always a question revolving in the public space – who is the youngest manager in Premier League? To answer the question, we have created a list of the youngest manager in Premier League below based on their ages as of July 2025.

Who is the Youngest Ever Premier League Manager?

Here is the detailed list of the top 10 youngest Premier League managers. This will give our readers a snippet of what they have done in their managerial career. Their personalized table will give us a chance to judge whether their decision to become a manager at an early stage was fruitful or not. Without wasting further time, let’s hop onto the detailed list of the 10 youngest Premier League managers.

10. Stuart Pearce: 34 years, 7 months, 29 days

At the time Stuart Pearce was given the charge of Nottingham Forest as caretaker manager following the resignation of Frank Clark in December 1996, he was still playing for the club as a defender. He managed 23 games as a player-coach from December 1996 to May 1997 and he made 398 appearances for Forest as a player. Unfortunately, The Tricky Trees suffered relegation at the end of the 1996/97 season.

In January 1997, Pearce won the Premier League Manager award and Dave Bassett eventually replaced Stuart Pearce as the new permanent manager. Meanwhile, the Englishman continued his spell as a player until 2002. Pearce got the opportunity to manage clubs like Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. Additionally, he also managed the English Olympic team in 2012 and the England U21 squad from 2007-2013. His managerial debut at 34 makes him one of the youngest EPL manager.

9. Alex Neil: 34 years, 1 month, 30 days

After taking retirement from playing, Alex Neil’s journey began in his home country at Hamilton Academical, where he polished his skills as a head coach and guided Hamilton to Scotland’s top-flight league. In a brief time, when Alex Niel was 34 years old, he got himself the head coach job at Norwich City, at that time the team was playing in the English second-tier, EFL Championship, in January 2015.

The Scotsman recreated the magic again, with the Canaries within just six months, steering the club to secure promotion into the Premier League and become one of the youngest ever Premier League managers in the history of the league. Now let’s talk about numbers, Alex Neil in 492 games secured 202 wins, 176 losses, and 102 matches ended without any result.

8. Kevin MacDonald: 34 years, 1 day

Kevin MacDonald’s short stint as manager came with Leicester City during the 1994/95 season, under a surprising turn of events when Brian Little resigned from his role to take up the managerial job at Aston Villa. Little exit gave no time to MacDonald, 34 who was quickly elected as the caretaker manager of the foxes in November 1994. The Scottish manager had only spent a month at the helm of Foxes. Under Kevin’s management, Leicester City did manage a 2-1 Premier League win over Arsenal and hosted former manager Little’s Aston Villa in a hostile 1-1 draw at Filbert Street respectively.

The Scottish manager managed 134 games after he first appeared as a caretaker manager for the Premier League side. In 134 games, he managed to win 47% of the games while losing 31% games. However there is no significant achievement in his name. His amangerial debut age of 34 amkes him oen of the youngest manager in premier league.

7. Ruud Gullit: 33 years, 11 months, 18 days

One of the greatest midfielders of all time, Ruud Gullit joined Chelsea as a player in 1995 signed by then-Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle. The Dutch icon continued to excel on the pitch as a player in his debut season in England. Following the departure of Hoddle, who was elected to manage the Three Lions in 1996, Chelsea made a bold move by appointing Gullit as manager- player role in only his second season at West London, making him the youngest ever Premier League manager of that season.

During his maiden 1996/97 campaign as a manager, he guided Chelsea to FA Cup glory and became the first Dutch and also the youngest manager in Premier League history. However, after falling out with club owner Ken Bates, he was sacked in 1998. The Dutch professional managed 192 games in which he faced losses in 52 matches and won 90 matches.

6. Andre Villas-Boas: 33 years, 9 months, 28 days

Andre Villas-Boas followed in the comparable footsteps of his mentor José Mourinho after learning management skills from the ‘Special one’ during his time as his assistant coach at Chelsea from 2004 to 2007. In 2011, Chelsea spent a record-breaking £13.3 million fee to bring the Portuguese tactician after watching his success with Porto FC, as he was the youngest manager to lift the UEFA Europa League title.

At 33, Villas-Boas was amongst the youngest manager in Premier League, making waves with his work; however, his style of play did not suit well with the Blues. Consequently, his spell only lasted a single year until March 2012. Later on, he went to manage notable clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and Marseille. He managed 420 matches in his managerial career and had a win ratio of 60%.

5. Gianluca Vialli: 33 years, 7 months, 30 days

In 1996, Gianluca Vialli arrived at Stamford Bridge after immensely successful spells in Italy with Serie A outfits Juventus and Sampordia under Rudd Gullit and played a part in winning the FA Cup and English Leagues Cup. Following Gullit’s departure, the Italian assumed the role of manager-player to crown the achievement of being the first Italian to manage in the Premier League. He worked further on the foundation laid by Gullit.

Vialli 33, surpassed the Dutchman to become the youngest Premier League manager and oversaw 135 matches as Chelsea boss in all competitions. Moreover, he led the English club to the League Cup, Community Shield, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and FA Cup feats.

4. Chris Coleman: 32 years, 7 months, 23 days

Chris Coleman’s playing career ended unexpectedly following a horrific car accident in 2001 and subsequently retired while donning the Fulham shirt in 2002. making him one of the youngest Premier League managers. However, swiftly got himself into an assistant manager role at Craven Cottage. He gained significant experience under the Fulham manager Jean Tigana and then went on to succeed the Frenchman at the end of the 2002/03 campaign. Coleman was initially offered a 12-month contract.

The Welshman served four years at Fulham as their manager and successfully helped them stay in the Premier League including a 9th place finish 2003/04 season and supervised 176 matches from the sidelines. However, his spell at Fulham can be concluded as below average, with only a 35% win ratio.

3. Attilio Lombardo: 32 years, 2 months, 6 days

In 1998, Attilio Lombardo took the Crystal Palace interim role earning the distinction of youngest Premier League manager surpassing fellow Italian Gianluca Vialli around the same time. The Italian midfielder was one of those rare player-manager positions, a role that was in fashion during that time in the English Premier League. Lombardo was assigned the manager job as a successor to Steve Coppell.

The Italian was 32 years old with no prior experience in coaching also did no help in Crystal Palace’s turmoil season as the Eagles were relegated after finishing at the bottom of the table. Though Lombardo continued at Selhurst Park as a player. His caretaker stint, which made him one of the youngest manager in Premier League at Crystal Palace, ended with a win ratio of 28.5% where he managed 7 games only.

2. Fabian Hurzeler: 31 years, 5 months, 22 days

The Seagulls bid farewell to their inspirational Italian manager Roberto De Zerbi in the summer of 2024. Brighton & Hove roped in a 31-year-old German tactician from Bundesliga club St Pauli as De Zerb’s heir at Amex Stadium. Hurzeler had guided Pauli to the first tier of German football in the 2023/24 season and his arrival made him the youngest-ever permanent Premier League manager in history at 31.

Despite being a young manager, Fabian Hurzeler is a phenomenal tactician and can work with limited resources and align with Brighton & Hove’s vision and philosophy. He managed 45 games so far for Brighton and has a decent win ratio of 46.6%.

1. Ryan Mason: 29 years, 10 months, 8 days

A terrible head injury cut short Ryan Mason’s playing career, forcing him to hang up his boots at the early 26 and a premature end to his career. he wasted no time turning to coaching at Tottenham’s youth set-up. Mason worked across the ranks of Tottenham Hotspur from Head of Academy Coaching to Technical Coach and worked alongside Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino at the North London club.

At the age 29-year-old, the former Spurs midfielder opted as interim manager following the sacking of Jose Mourinho before the Carabao Cup Final in 2021. Sadly, Tottenham lost the final to Man City 1-0 at Wembley, but they picked up two league wins under Ryan Mason in a total of 6 matches.