In pictures: Ten top coaches whose game-changing decisions inspired athletes to greatness

Sir Alex Ferguson, Suma Shirur and Gary Kirsten are among our picks of coaches who made the ultimate difference with their ingenuity and humanity

Achrekar’s coins for Tendulkar: Mumbai’s Shivaji Park has produced several distinguished cricketers for India, from Vinod Kambli to Ajit Agarkar to Sanjay Bangar, and most notably, Sachin Tendulkar. All of these talents blossomed under the tutelage of strict taskmaster Ramakant Achrekar during the ’80s and ’90s. Tendulkar, for his part, used to be part of a special training session in his early teens, one that was conceived by Achrekar to improve the prodigy’s concentration. At the end of regular training on most days, Tendulkar would be asked to bat with a Rs 1 coin placed on his middle stump. Whoever got him out would take the coin home. If Tendulkar remained unbeaten, the coin was his to collect. Safe to say that the dozens of coins Tendulkar accumulated under Achrekar went a long way in helping him accumulate a hundred international centuries

Richard Williams takes his daughters out of formal coaching: The story of Richard Williams, immortalised on screen thanks to a moving performance by Will Smith in 'King Richard', largely revolves around the sacrifices he made while training Venus and Serena Williams into two of the most formidable female tennis players of all time. A tennis amateur himself, Richard wanted his daughters to take up tennis because it promised financial stability. Having initiated them into the game when they were just four and a half, Richard would go on to withdraw both his daughters from a tennis academy in 1995, opting to coach them himself. He even wrote an 85-page tennis manual to guide his daughters and received his fair share of assistance from his second wife, Oracene Price, mother of Venus and Serena. Richard’s dedication paid off in ways even he could never have imagined, with his daughters winning a staggering 44 Grand Slams between them, including 14 doubles titles with each other

Toni Nadal makes his nephew play left-handed: Toni Nadal knew this nephew, a sprightly boy from Mallorca called Rafael Nadal, was special. Confused between tennis and football, the teenage Rafa eventually chose the former, with his uncle making the naturally right-handed Nadal turn into a leftie to gain an edge on court. At the time, left-handed players were rare at the tennis top level and Toni’s calculation was that Rafa would open up new angles and new shots besides adding more swerve and spin to his shots by switching the racquet to the other hand. The decision proved to be a gamechanger, not just for Rafa but for the history of tennis, with Rafa’s left-handedness playing a key part in his 22 Grand Slam crowns till date and his reputation as one of the hardest players to face on any given surface

Ferguson hands Ronaldo the number 7: When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Manchester United as a lanky winger from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2003, he initially wanted to wear the number 28, his lucky number from his days in Portugal. But Sir Alex Ferguson, who was soon to become a father figure to Ronaldo, insisted the teenager take the number 7, previously worn by United legends such as George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham. Ferguson’s decision to bestow United’s most famous shirt on an unproven youngster gave Ronaldo the confidence he needed to express himself in the Premier League. Across six sterling seasons at Old Trafford, Ronaldo made the number 7 his own, before returning last year to restore the iconic value of the shirt that is inextricably linked with the history and legacy of United

Gopichand mortgages his house to galvanise Indian badminton: The second Indian after Prakash Padukone to become an All England champion, Pullela Gopichand took to coaching after ending his career as a player in 2004. Disappointed with the lack of proper facilities for emerging players in the sport, Gopichand borrowed money from friends and mortgaged his house in Hyderabad to build the academy he felt would produce badminton champions of the future. Gopichand’s selflessness gave a platform fto India’s next generation of badminton players to thrive and compete with the best in the world, with his academy boasting alumni such as Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap, among others

Guardiola sells Ibrahimovic to keep Messi happy: “I see I’m not important anymore,” read a text from Lionel Messi to Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola in 2009. The addition of Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona team had deprived Messi of his false nine position, leading the Argentine to question his primacy at the club. Guardiola, who had been a big advocate of signing Ibra, suddenly had a choice to make, and he showed no hesitation in picking Messi, the man he knew was indispensable for his team. During the next transfer window, Ibrahimovic was offloaded to AC Milan while Barca’s number 10 was restored to the centre of the attack. Messi returned the favour by netting a whopping 126 goals over Guardiola’s next two seasons at the Camp Nou

Kirsten lets Dhoni call the shots: The mark of a great coach, especially in cricket, often lies in knowing when to step back. That is exactly what South African Gary Kirsten did during the 2011 World Cup final at the Wankhede Stadium between India and Sri Lanka. With the hosts and favourites in a spot of bother during their run chase, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni made the call to promote himself up the batting order and walk out at number five ahead of in-form Yuvraj Singh. Most coaches (we are reminded of a certain Australian here!) would have either debated or overruled this decision, considering Dhoni’s woeful run with the bat in the tournament. But Kirsten put all his faith in MSD, appreciating the sense of occasion and Dhoni’s intuition to go with it. The result — an innings of a lifetime that gave India the World Cup after 28 years

Ellis’s masterstroke makes the US world champions: As a British coach managing America's golden generation of female footballers, critics rarely cut Jill Ellis any slack. But even her fiercest detractor had no alternative but to applaud when Ellis solved a potentially disastrous situation during the latter stages of the 2015 Women’s World Cup. With suspensions ruling out forwards Megan Rapinoe and Lauren Holiday from the final against defending champions Japan, Ellis gambled on playing midfielder Carlie Lloyd as the main striker. Ellis’s move came off stupendously, with Lloyd netting a hat-trick inside 16 minutes to help the US become world champions in Canada, a feat they would go on to repeat under Ellis four years later against the Netherlands in France

Klopp asks Liverpool to celebrate in defeat: Jurgen Klopp had already surprised his Liverpool players in the lead-up to the 2018 UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid when he gave his pre-match team talk wearing (and displaying) CR7 underwear (Ronaldo was Real’s main man at the time)! But the German went one step further after Liverpool lost the final 3-1 in Kiev by urging his players to celebrate as if they had won. Klopp’s idea was simple — do not let the result undermine your efforts. After some reluctance to begin with, Liverpool players joined in and even composed a limerick to mark the moment. The energy and momentum that Liverpool got from a defeat served as the perfect foundation for the subsequent year, when they reached the Champions League final once more, this time to triumph against Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid

Shirur encourages Tomar to switch off: Female coaches in Indian sport are a rarity, mostly due to a shortage of opportunities rather than talent. As one of the few exceptions, Suma Shirur has been looking after India’s riflers with diligence and determination. After one of India’s stars, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, failed to live up to the hype in last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Shirur dealt with the fallout with patience and sympathy. Through long conversations with the 20-year-old Tomar, Shirur encouraged him to switch off from the sport for a while by travelling and spending time with his family. Tomar eventually paid heed and returned rejuvenated at the 2021 ISSF Junior World Championships in Peru. Shirur’s advice gave the relentless Tomar the break he needed to reorient his game and he lived up to expectations in Peru by winning the gold medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event