Diego Bortoluzzi (born 23 September 1966) is an Italian professional

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, most recently in charge as head coach of

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

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 Coppa ...

Playing career

Coming from the renowned youth system of

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

, Bortoluzzi made his senior debut in the

league on 17 March 1985, in a game against Napoli. He was successively loaned out to Piacenza (

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

L.R. Vicenza L.R. Vicenza, commonly referred to as Vicenza, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vicenza, Veneto. Founded in 1902 as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, they became Lanerossi Vicenza in 1953, then Vicenza Calcio from 1990 ...

(

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football (soccer), football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1 ...

) before leaving Atalanta for good to join rivals

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

. After a single season back at Serie C1 level with

Pro Sesto Pro Sesto 1913 S.r.l. (formerly ''Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica Nuova Pro Sesto'' and initially ''Associazione Calcio Pro Sesto'') is an association football club, based in Sesto San Giovanni, Lombardy, Italy. Pro Sesto currently plays ...

, he joined Venezia in 1991, playing five full Serie B seasons with the club. He then remarkably played five seasons at

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and ''comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Veneti ...

as key player and also team captain, before retiring in 2003 after a short stint with amateurs Conegliano.

Coaching career

In January 2004, Francesco Guidolin appointed Bortoluzzi as his assistant coach at

, with whom he oversaw a historic promotion to

over 30 years after the ''Rosaneros last top flight appearance. He left Palermo on the summer of 2005, following Guidolin's departure, to become youth coach of his former playing club

, who were just promoted to the top flight for their very first time. He was successively appointed new head coach in February 2006, following Alberto Cavasin's dismissal and with just 14 points in the league, failing to save the team from relegation. Despite that, he was confirmed for the following Serie B season, only to be fired on 5 November after managing to achieve only ten points in the first ten league games. In November 2007, he returned to Palermo to work alongside Guidolin, then following him to work as his assistant at

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

and Udinese. He then served as

Andrea Mandorlini Andrea Mandorlini (born 17 July 1960) is an Italian association football, football manager and former Defender (association football), defender, currently in charge of club Mantova 1911, Mantova. Playing career Mandorlini made his playing debu ...

's assistant at

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

from July to November 2015, and then again as Guidolin's assistant at

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

from January to October 2016. On 11 April 2017, he was named as the fifth head coach of the season of

(after

Davide Ballardini Davide Ballardini (born 6 January 1964) is an Italian football manager. He formerly played professionally for Cesena as a midfielder. He is currently the head coach of club Cremonese. Playing career A former midfielder, Ballardini spent seven y ...

Roberto De Zerbi Roberto De Zerbi (; born 6 June 1979) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club Brighton & Hove Albion. Playing career De Zerbi started his professional career at AC Milan. He spent four season ...

Eugenio Corini Eugenio Corini (born 30 July 1970) is an Italian professional football coach and former player, currently in charge of Serie B club Palermo. A talented, dynamic, and hard-working playmaker, known for his precise long passing, flair, and his a ...

and

Luis Diego López Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

) for the remainder of the season, with Palermo having just achieved 15 points in 31 games (out of 38) and deep in relegation trouble. Among all things, the club's new chairman

Paul Baccaglini Paul Baccaglini is an Italian American entrepreneur, investor, and former chairman of U.S. Città di Palermo, football (soccer) club based in Palermo, Italy. Baccaglini is an eccentric personality, known for his career in television. In 2017, he ...

explicitly stated his appointment was suggested by Francesco Guidolin. Despite an improvement in results, Bortoluzzi did not manage to save the team from relegation to Serie B and he was thus not confirmed for the new season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bortoluzzi, Diego 1966 births Living people Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Italian football managers Serie A players Serie A managers Atalanta BC players Piacenza Calcio 1919 players LR Vicenza players Brescia Calcio players Venezia FC players US Avellino 1912 players Treviso FBC 1993 players Treviso FBC 1993 managers Palermo FC managers Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Sportspeople from Vittorio Veneto Footballers from Veneto