Only two men are in with a chance of appearing as a top three finalist for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach Award for the second consecutive year: Zinedine Zidane and Massimiliano Allegri. Zidane took home the award in 2017 after leading Real Madrid to UEFA Champions League, La Liga and FIFA Club World Cup glory.

However, perhaps Allegri’s achievements with Juventus have been overlooked slightly due to the Turin side’s sustained dominance in Italian football in recent years.

“After Cardiff I did…I had a moment of reflection, as could be expected, because I already achieved two Champions League finals in three years,” Allegri said in the Netflix original documentary First Team: Juventus. “So I had a moment where I stopped and I asked myself if I still had the energy and strength to be able to face another year at Juventus."

The answer was quite clearly an emphatic 'yes'. Allegri navigated La Vecchia Signora ("The Old Lady") to a remarkable fourth consecutive domestic double and the quarter-finals in the Champions League. No team in the history of the Italian top flight had ever won seven successive league titles.

“The difference between Juventus and other teams is that what you achieve is put aside right away, and you immediately have to work hard for the next success," said Allegri. "So this puts you under a lot of pressure. I always say that in football, ‘Winning is an extraordinary thing, but it is not normal.’ Outsiders think it’s normal for Juventus to win, but it’s absolutely not normal, because you can’t win every year.”

So what makes Allegri such a successful coach? How is he able to keep I Bianconeri (The Black and Whites) hungry to keep winning trophies year after year?

“When he sees the team sitting or resting on their laurels, he is always able to find a catchphrase, a particular thing that makes all of them react. I think this is his greatest quality," said former Juventus defender Moreno Torricelli in First Team: Juventus.

Juventus' 2017/18 at a glance

Winning, part of Juve's DNA Allegri has found the winning formula to keep Juventus competitive and has shown he is the perfect fit to have the team fighting on all fronts, in with a chance of winning trophies each year.

“Each Scudetto won with Juventus has been different but this one has been my favourite of all," said Allegri at the end of the 2017/18 season on the club's official website. "It's in Juve's DNA to always be competitive. Now everything is good because we will celebrate, seven Scudetti and four Coppa Italias and everything is fine, then next year we will all start again on zero points. Next year will be even more difficult but not impossible, but we need to keep raising our game.

"It's always our objective to work hard to create Juventus history. That boils down to determination, sacrifice and confidence in our own abilities. It's in the difficult moments that I actually have more fun, my favourite moment of the season was the final stage of the match against Tottenham, when we defended for our lives right until the end."

If Allegri is crowned as The Best FIFA Men's Coach 2018, you can bet he will smile just for a moment, before taking a look at the league table and turning his thoughts to securing three more points.