The Italians who have won the Premier League

Italy: a nation steeped in football history.

Four time-world champions and two-time European Championship winners, there is no doubting that Italy have produced some of the greatest footballers to ever grace the pitch. Their knack for producing exceptional managers is worthy of applause, too.

However, Italians haven’t always transferred their skills to English shores. The Premier League has boasted some impressive Azzurri stars but many of their elite have stayed put in Serie A. In fact, only a handful of Italians have ever got their hands on the Premier League trophy, most of whom have done so from the dugout.

Here are the Italians who have won the Premier League, either as a player or a manager.

Carlo Ancelotti

Don Carlo Ancelotti was the first Italian – player or manager – to lift the Premier League title, doing so at a club that had celebrated its fair share of Azzurri greatness. The likes of Gianfranco Zola, Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Di Matteo had all failed to earn champion status in England previously, but a star-studded Chelsea side lifted the trophy aloft come the end of the 2009/10 season.

Ancelotti has won silverware pretty much everywhere he’s been and pipped an impressive Manchester United team to top spot by a single point during a memorable campaign. The Blues finished on 86 points and netted 103 goals – 17 more than runners-up Man Utd – and triumphed on the final day with an 8-0 demolition of Wigan Athletic.

Their victory over the Latics was the fourth time they had scored seven or more in a single game that season, with Ancelotti’s men also winning the FA Cup six days after the end of the Premier League campaign having conceded just one goal in the competition.

Roberto Mancini

Roberto Mancini can certainly lay claim to the most dramatic Premier League title ever won. Taking charge of Manchester City in the 2011/12 season, the Sky Blues needed victory on the final day of the campaign to beat local rivals Man Utd to the trophy but found themselves 2-1 down to lowly Queens Park Rangers heading into stoppage time.

The rest, as they say, is history. Edin Dzeko produced an all-important equaliser in the 92nd minute before Sergio Aguero netted arguably the most famous goal in the competition’s history two minutes later. The Argentine’s near-post effort from close range spared Man City’s blushes and fired them to a…