Louis van Gaal is on course for a remarkable treble in his first season in charge of Bayern Munich and can also achieve the feat of winning the Champions League as coach of two different teams.
Van Gaal won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, and Bayern beat Lyon 3-0 on Tuesday night to reach the Champions League final for the first time since last winning it in 2001.
Bayern tops the Bundesliga, and has the German Cup final to play before meeting Inter Milan or Barcelona in the Champions League final.
The Dutch coach jokes that "now the players know what it's like to spend 10 months with Louis van Gaal, it's not easy." But after a tough start the 58-year-old Van Gaal has transformed the four-time European champion into a ruthless winning machine.
"Everyone is happy with our qualification, and we are still competing in three competitions," he said after Bayern crushed Lyon to win the semifinal rout 4-0 on aggregate. "If we carry on playing like this we will be very hard to beat."
The turnaround for the former Netherlands and Barcelona coach has been astonishing.
Van Gaal's start to his Bayern career was a troubled one, as key players like France winger Franck Ribery questioned his cold, steely approach to management, and the results went against him. He failed to win his first three league games in charge, and the team was drifting in seventh place in the Bundesliga by the end of November.
The pressure increased on Van Gaal when Bayern lost home and away to French club Bordeaux in the Champions League group stage, and it needed an inspired 4-1 win away to Juventus on Dec. 8 to reach the knockout round.
The thrashing of Juve proved the turning point, as Bayern won its next nine games and found its attacking verve again by scoring 32 goals over that stretch.
Van Gaal's coolness under the intense pressure that comes with the Bayern job - where former club legends like Franz Beckenbauer and Uli Hoeness monitor your every step - has now rubbed off on his players.
The team scored crucial late goals away to eliminate Fiorentina on away goals in the first knockout stage.
Ivica Olic scored in injury time as Bayern beat Manchester United 2-1 in the first leg of the quarterfinals, and Olic popped up with a goal just before halftime at Old Trafford with United leading 3-0 and Arjen Robben added another in the 74th minute as Bayern squeezed through to the semifinals on away goals.
"When I trained teams in Holland, I used to say to my players to keep playing until the 90th minute. Even if you are winning in the 90th minute, you can never say you have won against a German team," Van Gaal said. "There are a lot of German players in our team, and foreign players who have adopted this German culture. This forms our mental strength."
Van Gaal's strong character helps him deal with stars, typified by the way he refused to soften his stance with Ribery earlier this season, and in the way he took Robben off in the first leg against Lyon - even though the Netherlands winger had scored the only goal of the game.
As Robben trudged off angrily, rather than placate the team's best player, Van Gaal grabbed him by the arm and let him know his behavior was unacceptable. Robben understood, and soon calmed down.
"No player has the guarantee to play 90 minutes with me, he has to do his (job). When he is not doing his (job) then he is out of the team," Van Gaal said. "All the players have to know that and I believe all the players know that."
With Lyon 3-0 down on Tuesday night, and Robben desperate to score after seeing two of his shots saved by Hugo Lloris, he took him off again. This time, Robben smiled and shook Van Gaal's hand. The message had got through.
Hoeness, Bayern's president, is normally a fierce critic of managers and players alike when they fall below the club's high standards. But even he was gushing in his praise of Van Gaal's team's performance against Lyon.
"The football we've witnessed was close to perfection. It's a long, long time since I've seen that from a Bayern team in an important match," he said. We've found the right path to pursue, and it's leading us rapidly upwards."
Beckenbauer, Bayern's greatest ever player, called it "a tactical masterclass" from Van Gaal.
