Alessio Secco (born 5 January 1970) was an Italian director of football for the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club Juventus. Alessio was later on dismissed at the end of the disappointing 2009–10 season, and replaced by

Giuseppe Marotta Giuseppe "Beppe" Marotta (born 25 March 1957) is an Italian football executive who is currently the CEO for sport of Italian football club Internazionale. In 2014, he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame. Early career In 1978, at ...

Career with Juventus

Secco first joined Juventus in 1999, working as a press secretary and then as team manager in 2000 under

Carlo Ancelotti Carlo Ancelotti , (born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Real Madrid. Regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, Ancelotti is the most decorated manager ...

. He then worked under

Luciano Moggi Luciano Moggi ( born 10 July 1937) is a former Italian association football administrator. He was a club executive for A.S. Roma, Roma, S.S. Lazio, Lazio, Torino F.C., Torino, S.S.C. Napoli, Napoli, and Juventus, leading them to win six leagues ...

but was promoted to Moggi's position on 23 May 2006 when Moggi was forced to step down due to the ''

Calciopoli ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian football b ...

'' scandal that year. Former Juventus player

Didier Deschamps Didier Claude Deschamps (; born 15 October 1968) is a French professional football manager and former player who has been manager of the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, ...

was brought in as manager and Juventus topped the

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

to win promotion. However, he and Deschamps had a falling-out over multiple issues, leading to Deschamps' resignation at the end of May 2007 with only two games remaining. Working together with chairman

Jean-Claude Blanc Jean-Claude Blanc (; born 9 April 1963 in Chambéry, France) is a French general manager and former marketing executive of Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and former CEO of Juventus F.C., Juventus Football Club. Education Blanc holds an International Bu ...

, Secco proceeded to purchase players in an effort to revitalize the team after Juventus regained promotion to the

. However, he soon came under fire from ''Bianconeri'' fans due to his failure in buying top class players capable helping Juventus mount a title challenge against the likes of

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

. Although credited with preventing the sale of goalkeeper

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian professional footballer who captains and plays as a goalkeeper for the club Parma. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time. He is one of the few recorded pl ...

and young stars Sebastian Giovinco and

Claudio Marchisio Claudio Marchisio (; born 19 January 1986) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. A product of the Juventus youth system, he spent a large portion of his career at his hometown club, with the exception of a sea ...

, he was highly criticized for signing players such as

Tiago Mendes Tiago Cardoso Mendes (; born 2 May 1981), known simply as Tiago, is a Portuguese football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He played professionally in five of Europe's major leagues, Portugal, England, France, Italy and S ...

, Sergio Almirón, and defenders

Jean-Alain Boumsong Jean-Alain Boumsong Somkong (born 14 December 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began his senior career with French club Le Havre in 1997 before joining AJ Auxerre in 2000. His performances at Auxerre ...

and

Jorge Andrade Jorge Manuel Almeida Gomes de Andrade (; born 9 April 1978) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a central defender. After playing two years with Porto he went on to represent Deportivo (169 official ...

during the 2007–08 season even though Juventus finished third in the league, thus qualifying for Champions League football the following season. Meanwhile, Mendes, Almirón and Boumsong were all either loaned out or sold by the winter transfer window of the 2009–10 season. In February 2009, it was confirmed that he renewed his contract until 2011. He courted controversy after it was discovered that he had allegedly spoken to representatives from

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

and reportedly communicated with Moggi despite the latter's five-year "excommunication" from football. Despite 2008–09 season ending on a high note, Juventus endured a dismal run in the Champions League and later the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

during the 2009–10 season. They were eliminated from European competitions after 4–1 defeat away at Fulham despite taking an early lead and traveling supporters chanted "''Vattene Blanc e Secco''" (Get lost Blanc and Secco) after the final whistle. The players were also jeered at upon their return to Turin and Secco and Blanc came under scathing criticism from fans and the media, as well as several club legends. Italian daily

Il Giornale ''il Giornale'' ( en, The Newspaper) is an Italian language daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy. History and profile The newspaper was founded in 1974 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleagues Enzo Bettiza, Ferenc ...

even went as far as to accuse the duo of "embarrassing" the club.

Personal life

Secco has a wife named Paola and two children, Filippo and Sofia. All of the family currently live in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

References

1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Turin {{Italy-footy-bio-stub