Arturo Di Napoli (born 18 April 1974) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player, who played as a striker. He is currently head coach of Italian amateurs Cologno.

Playing career

From Empoli to Messina

Di Napoli started his career in minor Italian clubs, before being picked up by

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

when

Freddy Rincón Freddy Eusebio Rincón Valencia (; 14 August 1966 – 13 April 2022) was a Colombian professional footballer who played 84 games for the Colombia national team between 1990 and 2001. A versatile midfielder, he was capable of playing on the lef ...

's loan deal expired. Di Napoli scored five times for the Neapolitans, before being sold to

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 ...

, where he was unable to make an impact. In 1998, he was signed by

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

on loan. In June 1999, he was signed by

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

for 7 billion

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

. In January 2005, his contract with

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

was extended to summer 2008.

From Salernitana to Messina

After Messina went bankrupt,

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

signed him on free transfer and loaned him to

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

. He guided the Campanian side to promotion in the Italian

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, 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 ...

, and was acquired half of the registration rights in July 2008. In his Serie B season with Salernitana, he provided 13 goals, being instrumental into guiding his side into their relegation escape. In September 2009, he left Salernitana by mutual consent in order to return to

, joining the ''giallorossi'', now in

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

, on a free transfer with the aim to guide them back into professionalism.

From Venezia to Caronnese

The

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

joined in summer 2010 from Italian

football team

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

. He played in the first half of the season 11 games and scored two goals for

before joined on 2 December 2010 to Caronnese.

Coaching career

After his retirement, Di Napoli took his first full coaching role in July 2012 at amateurs

Rieti Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and Ao ...

Lazio, then resigning later in November 2012 due to personal reasons. In August 2013 he took the reins of

club

Riccione Riccione (; rgn, Arciôn ) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. As of 2018, Riccione had an estimated population of 35,003. History The oldest archaeological findings in Riccione's area date to the 2nd cen ...

, resigning in December 2013 due to financial issues. On 26 July 2014 he was named new head coach of

Lega Pro The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

club

Savona Savona (; lij, Sann-a ) is a seaport and ''comune'' in the west part of the northern Italy, Italian region of Liguria, capital of the Province of Savona, in the Riviera di Ponente on the Mediterranean Sea. Savona used to be one of the chie ...

. Di Napoli undertook his first move abroad in late 2014, when on January 31, 2014, he signed for Maltese club Vittoriosa Stars, in view of the 2015 remaining season. He was successively named head coach of Serie D club

in August 2015, but was forced to quit in February 2016 after being disqualified for four years due to his involvement in the

2015 Italian football scandal The 2015 Italian football scandal, or ''Dirty Soccer'', was a scandal that involved rigged matches in 2014–15 season, involving Calcio Catania. The multimillion-dollar match-fixing scandal was suspected to be orchestrated by 'Ndrangheta, the ...

. His sentence was then reduced to 3 years and 6 months on appeal. In December 2017, he was acquitted from all charges on the related criminal trial (unrelated to the sports trial). His disqualification ended officially on 12 July 2019, on which day he announced he was in talks to become head coach of amateur club Cologno. He was formally announced as new Cologno coach, in the

Prima Categoria The Prima Categoria is a level of football in Italy. It is the seventh level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within t ...

league, on 8 September 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Di Napoli, Arturo 1974 births Living people Italian footballers Italian football managers A.S. Gualdo Casacastalda players Inter Milan players L.R. Vicenza players Palermo F.C. players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players S.S.C. Napoli players Empoli F.C. players A.C.R. Messina players U.S. Salernitana 1919 players Venezia F.C. players A.C.N. Siena 1904 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Association football forwards Footballers from Milan People of Campanian descent S.C. Caronnese S.S.D. players