Alberto Malesani

Alberto Malesani

Personal information
Full name	Alberto Malesani
Date of birth	(1954-06-05) 5 June 1954
Place of birth	Verona, Italy
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Free agent
Youth career
	Audace S. Michele
1970	Vicenza
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Audace S. Michele
Managerial career
1987–1990	Chievo (junior)
1990–1991	Chievo (youth)
1991–1993	Chievo (assistant)
1993–1997	Chievo
1997–1998	Fiorentina
1998–2001	Parma
2001–2003	Verona
2003–2004	Modena
2005–2006	Panathinaikos
2007	Udinese
2007–2008	Empoli
2009–2010	Siena
2010–2011	Bologna
2011	Genoa
2012	Genoa
2013	Palermo
2014	Sassuolo
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Alberto Malesani (Italian pronunciation: [alˈbɛrto maleˈzaːni]; born 5 June 1954) is an Italian association football manager and former footballer.

Career

Early career and breakthrough at Chievo

A young Malesani during his first stint as Chievo head coach

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 1976–77, appearing fourteen times on that season. 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. His passion for coaching was so great, that on his honeymoon, he decided to go to Barcelona in order to watch Johan Cruijff's coaching sessions at Barcelona FC.

Malesani left his job at Canon in 1990 order to pursue a coaching career at Serie C1 team Chievo 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.

Fiorentina, Parma and UEFA Cup triumph

Malesani left Chievo in 1997, after three impressive Serie B seasons and a narrowly missed promotion in the Serie A league in order to become Fiorentina's boss, in what was his first stint in the Italian top flight.

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 2000–01.

From Verona to Udinese

After losing his job at Parma, Malesani then coached Verona and Modena, failing to save the clubs from relegation in both cases; successively he moved abroad to coach Greek side Panathinaikos, still with little success. During coaching Panathinaikos FC, the Greek sport press constantly criticized his tactics. After a home draw against Iraklis FC and during the post match press conference, Malesani had an outburst of temper against the fans and journalists. Notably, he angrily attacked the journalists pronouncing 21 times the word cazzo (dick, used as an expletive in Italian). He also made some unfortunate comments concerning the supporting fanbase for heavily criticizing the Vardinogiannis family (sole owners of the club 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.

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. He was axed on 31 March 2008 following a 2–0 home defeat to U.C. Sampdoria which left Empoli down in last place in the league table.

From Siena to Bologna

On 23 November 2009 he was appointed as the new head coach of Siena, replacing Marco Baroni. On 21 May 2010 was released by Siena.

On 1 September 2010 he signed a one-year contract for Bologna. After a successful season which saw his club finish in 16th place, six points clear of relegation, despite a three-point deduction for tax problems and running feuds over the clubs ownership, Malesani was replaced by Pierpaolo Bisoli on 26 May 2011.

Genoa

On 19 June 2011 Genoa officially announced that Malesani would be the new first team head coach. However, after Genoa was defeated 6-1 by Napoli, Malesani was fired. He returned at Genoa on 2 April 2012, taking over from Pasquale Marino who had previously replaced him only to be sacked a few months later. His second stint as Genoa boss lasted however only twenty days, as he was sacked once again on 22 April after a 1–4 home loss to Siena that left Genoa one point shy of relegation, and led to massive protests from Genoa fans during the game.

Palermo

On 5 February 2013, Malesani was appointed as the manager of Palermo.

However, after three matches in charge, on 24 February 2013 Malesani was relieved from his duties as the manager.

Sassuolo

On 29 January 2014, it was announced Malesani has agreed to take over as new manager of the top-flight team Sassuolo.

Managerial statistics

As of 9 March 2014

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	Win %	GF	GA	+/-
Chievo		1 June 1993	30 June 1997	155	52	66	37	33.55	170	140	+30
Fiorentina		1 July 1997	30 June 1998	40	18	15	7	45	74	41	+33
Parma		1 July 1998	8 January 2001	123	62	33	28	50.41	211	125	+86
Verona		4 July 2001	10 June 2003	77	23	23	31	29.87	88	101	−13
Modena		10 June 2003	22 March 2004	30	6	10	14	20	25	39	−14
Panathinaikos		16 February 2005	15 May 2006	53	32	9	12	60.38	74	52	+22
Udinese		16 January 2007	30 June 2007	20	7	5	8	35	32	34	−2
Empoli		26 November 2007	31 March 2008	20	5	4	11	25	22	30	−8
Siena		23 November 2009	21 May 2010	26	6	7	13	23.08	29	47	−18
Bologna		1 September 2010	26 May 2011	40	13	11	16	32.5	42	56	−14
Genoa		19 June 2011	22 December 2011	18	8	3	7	44.44	27	29	−2
Genoa		2 April 2012	22 April 2012	3	0	2	1	0	2	6	−4
Palermo		5 February 2013	24 February 2013	3	0	3	0	0	2	2	0
Sassuolo		29 January 2014	3 March 2014	6	0	1	5	0	3	9	−6
Total				614	232	192	190	37.79	801	711	+90

Honours

Managerial

Chievo (1993–1997)

• Serie C1 (1): 1993–94

Parma (1998–2001)

• Coppa Italia (1): 1998–99
• UEFA Cup (1): 1998–99
• Supercoppa Italiana (1): 1999

See also

• List of UEFA Cup winning managers

References

• Profile of Alberto Malesani on Hellastory.net

1. REDIRECT Template:ACN Siena 1904 managers

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