The Italian coaching school of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st is not very rich in super-famous coaches who would achieve high results outside the domestic championship. Although for the sake of fairness it is worth noting that both the Italian team and the Squadro Azuri clubs have not been among the top giants of European football for a long time, but once everything was completely different ...
Italy national team
Italian football has never lagged behind in Europe, and in the world too. Already in the second world championship, the players from the Apennines won gold medals and universal recognition. At the next championship, after 4 years, they were able to repeat their great achievement, but already playing in a fabulous country - France. After that, a certain calm followed in the achievements of the national team and until 1968 the Italians won nothing. Perhaps this is due to the large losses that they had to suffer in connection with the protracted World War II. This year they managed to get gold at the European Championship, where in the final they beat the very strong team of Yugoslavia. Then followed the “silver” at the World Cup in Mexico and the “gold” in Spain. Since 1990, the Italian national team has not achieved anything, until 2004 ... From then on, it was headed by Marcello Lippi, putting the first pebble in the modern history of Italian football.
Marcello's gaming career
During his career as a football player, all skeptics were already completely defeated by the game of this central defender, who had been enchanting for 10 years at Sampdoria as its captain. Already during the time of his playing career in Lippi, the makings of a leader who leads others behind him were visible, because it was not in vain that he had spent more than 270 matches for his team over all these years. After “Sampdoria”, the Italian footballer clearly began to “dry out” and played out his last matches in the modest clubs “Pustoiese” and “Lucchese”. For the Italian national team, he was not destined to play, and most likely, this is the only omission that he can regret.
Coaching career Marcello Lippi
Having finished his career as a professional football player, the Italian immediately set about coaching, starting to train the youth team of his favorite team - “Sampdoria”. Later, he began to climb the career ladder higher and higher, until he reached the goals that he had probably long dreamed about. He received an offer from a rather serious club from Naples. In “Napoli” Marcello Lippi worked exactly one season and immediately after that went into a more serious project “Juventus”. It was here that the Italian specialist was able to reveal his potential. He worked with this club for 5 years and despite the fact that all the stars of “Old Signora” are gone, he found an approach to youth, built the tactics of his new team according to the 4-2-3-1 scheme and introduced the football “fashion” for this arrangement . Over the years, Marcello Lippi managed to win 3 Italian titles, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, to become the best coach of the time. He was simply worn on his hands in Turin, but after a defeat in the championship with a score of 4: 2, the coach resigned. Then there was a clear recession ... An unsuccessful year at the Internationale with conflicts, after which he was dismissed as head coach. In 2001, he returned to Juventus and stayed there for another 3 years, winning 2 more Italian championships.
Peak Lippi's Coaching Career
2004 considers all football Italy crucial. After protracted failures by their favorites, Marcello Lippi was invited to the post of head coach of “Squadro Azuri”. Although the Italian national football team under the leadership of an Italian specialist lost its first match, which entailed a lot of criticism, after the national team successfully qualified for the 2006 World Cup, which took place in Germany. The entire World Cup was dictated by the Italians, and in the final match they faced a really difficult test - the French team with such footballers as Zidane, Abidal, Trezeguet and others (match with the scandalous blow of Zidane). Lippi coped with this test and from the moment he refused to renew the contract with the Italian Football Federation, his significant coaching achievements were over.
Unsuccessful work in Italy during qualification for the 2010 World Cup and modest work in the Chinese club of Hangzhou ... Obviously, this specialist dreamed of not 10 years ago ...