Alberto Malesani

Infobox Football biography


playername = Alberto Malesani
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1954|6|5
cityofbirth = Verona
countryofbirth = Italy
currentclub =
position = Manager
youthyears = ? 1970
youthclubs = Audace S. Michele Vicenza
years = ?-1978
clubs = Audace S. Michele
caps(goals) = ? (?)
nationalyears =
nationalteams =
manageryears = 1990-1991
1991-1993
1993-1997
1997-1998
1998-2001
2001-2003
2003-2004
2005-2006
2007
2007-2008
managerclubs = Chievo Verona ("youth coach")
Chievo Verona ("assistant coach")
Chievo Verona
Fiorentina
Parma
Verona
Modena
Panathinaikos FC
Udinese
Empoli

Alberto Malesani (born June 5, 1954 in Verona) is an Italian football (soccer) manager.

Career

Malesani career as player was mostly spent on a Veronese amateur team Audace S. Michele, where he obtained a promotion from Serie D to Serie C in 1976/1977, appearing fourteen times on that season. [it icon [http://www.hellastory.net/pages/scheda.cfm?id=7D590D79-4854-12EA-BD663F99594DEB70 HELLASTORY.net | La Scheda di Alberto Malesani ] ] He retired from playing football at the age of 24, and worked at Canon in Amsterdam, where he studied the Ajax Amsterdam total football training methods. [ [http://www.tifonet.it/fiore/malesani/bio.htm Alberto Malesani - l'antipersonaggio (la biografia) ] ] He left his job at Canon in 1990 order to pursue a coaching career at Serie C1 team Chievo Verona for the "Allievi" youth squad. In 1991, he is assistant of head coach Carlo De Angelis in the first team, and in 1993 he becomes head coach himself. His first season as head coach ended in a historical promotion to Serie B for then-unknown Chievo Verona. Malesani left Chievo in 1997, after three impressive Serie B seasons and a narrowly missed promotion in the Italian top division, in order to become Fiorentina's boss.

A good Fiorentina season convinced Parma to appoint Malesani as new head coach in 1998, where he won a Coppa Italia, a UEFA Cup, an Italian Super Cup and obtained two fourth places before being sacked in 2000/2001. He then coached Verona, Modena and Greek side Panathinaikos with much less success. During coaching Panathinaikos FC, the Greek sport press was constantly criticizing his tactics. After a draw against powerless Iraklis FC and during the post match press conference, Alberto Malesani had an unforgettable outburst of temper [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQm9RJfoVoA] (very similar to Giovanni Trapattoni's during his career in FC Bayern) against the fans and journalists which is still remembered by all Greek football fans.

Malesani was appointed coach of Udinese on January 2007, as replacement for Giovanni Galeone. He led his side to a not particularly impressive tenth place in the Serie A 2006-07 final table, only seven points far from relegation, being not confirmed for the following season. On November 27, 2007 he was unveiled as Empoli's new head coach, replacing Luigi Cagni.cite news|url=http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/nov26p.html|date=2007-11-26|accessdate=2007-11-27|publisher=Football Italia|title=Empoli axe Cagni] He was axed on March 31, 2008 following a 2–0 home defeat to U.C. Sampdoria which left Empoli down in last place in the league table.cite news |title=L'Empoli licenzia Malesani. In panchina torna Cagni|url=http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/SerieA/Squadre/Empoli/Primo_Piano/2008/03_Marzo/31/malesani.shtml |publisher= La Gazzetta dello Sport |date= 2008-03-31 |accessdate=2008-03-31 |language=Italian]

Trivia

*On his honeymoon, Malesani decided to go to Barcelona in order to watch Johan Cruijff's coaching sessions at Barcelona FC.
*During his coaching time at Panathinaikos, Malesani gained some popularity for a four-minutes-long press conference [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQm9RJfoVoA Warning: Rough language - subtitles supplied in Greek] (made in Italian language) where he angrily attacked the journalists pronouncing 21 times the word "cazzo" (dick, used as an expletive in Italian).He also made some unfortunate comments for the supporting fanbase for heavily criticizing the Vardinogiannis family (sole owners of the team at the time), although he was unaware of the long standing rivalry of the majority of the team's fans against them, blaming them for being incompetent to lead the club successfully.

ee also

* List of UEFA Cup winning managers

References