Elisabetta "Betty" Bavagnoli (born 3 September 1963) 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 defender or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. As a player, she represented the Italian women's national team and various clubs in women's Serie A.

Playing style

During her playing career versatile Bavagnoli played in several different positions. Beginning as a right winger, she developed into a full back, then a lateral

. She finished her playing days as a sweeper.

Coaching style

Bavagnoli sends her teams out in a traditional

4–4–2 In association football, the formation of a team refers to the position players take in relation to each other on a pitch. As association football is a fluid and fast-moving game, a player's position (with the exception of the goalkeeper) in a ...

, but will sometimes depart from her favoured formation depending on the players at her disposal. She expects her players to pressure opponents high up the pitch.

Playing career

Club

Bavagnoli broke into the team of hometown club Piacenza as a youngster. She stayed for five seasons until the club was dissolved in 1983. She moved on to

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, then

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, where she won her first of seven league titles in 1987–88. At Lazio she also formed a friendship with

Carolina Morace Carolina Morace (; born 5 February 1964) is an Italian former footballer who played as a striker and is the current head coach of Lazio Women. She played for the Italian national team and for various clubs in women's Serie A. She was the top ...

which would result in a long professional collaboration. Together with Morace, Bavagnoli played at Reggiana and Milan, leaving the latter in 1993–94 due to the club's financial difficulties. She moved to

Torres Torres may refer to: People *Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname *Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott **Torres (album), ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres Places Americas *Torres, Colorado, an un ...

, then continued her partnership with Morace at Aircargo Agliana, Günther Verona and back at Modena. Retiring in 1999 at age 36, Bavagnoli finished her career with two seasons back at Lazio. In the first campaign she was

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

, then she became player-assistant-coach under Morace who managed Lazio in 1998–99, having completed her own playing career. The team collected the 1999

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

, beating ACF Milan 4–0 in the final.

International

She debuted for the Italian women's national team in May 1986, in a 1–0 win over

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

. She subsequently played in four editions of the

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalent ...

as well as at the inaugural

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

. She was part of the team which finished second at

UEFA Women's Euro 1993 The 1993 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as Women's Euro 1993 was a football tournament that happened between 1991 and 1993 (with the qualifying round). The final games was held in Italy. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tour ...

, the Azzurre's best achievement to date. Bavagnoli won 80

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for Italy, scoring one goal.The

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

's (FIGC) official website reports 72 appearances and one goal, taking into account only matches played against national teams, not games against the "Rest of Europe" or those played in China against regional select teams such as Liaoning and Guangxi. Her final appearance came in a 2–0 friendly win over

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in April 1997.

Coaching career

Immediately after retirement, Bavagnoli joined the coaching staff of Carolina Morace, who had got a job as manager of men's

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

club Viterbese. Defeat in the second league match of the 1999–00 season caused the team's unstable owner

Luciano Gaucci Luciano Gaucci (December 28, 1938 – February 1, 2020) was an Italian entrepreneur and sportsman. He was the owner of various clubs: * Perugia Calcio, a football club based in Perugia, Umbria. * Viterbese Calcio, a football club based in Viterbo, ...

to say he would replace Morace's staff. Morace resigned, followed by Bavagnoli a few days later. In July 2000, Morace began coaching the Italian women's national team, with Bavagnoli as her assistant. They had responsibility for the senior and under-18 teams. In 2003 Bavagnoli assumed control of the Italian women's under-19 team and guided them to the

2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship The 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship was held from 10 to 27 November 2004. It was the second edition of the youth tournament for women put together by FIFA, before being renamed FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship for the 2006 edition. ...

in Thailand. She then returned to Lazio, as a

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

, alongside Antonello Belli. She worked with the female youth teams at Lodigiani and Fiano Romano, whose senior team she also coached in the 2008–09 season. From February 2009 to July 2011 she assisted Morace in coaching the

Canada women's national soccer team The Canada women's national soccer team (french: Équipe du Canada féminine de soccer) represents Canada in international soccer competitions. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body for soccer in Canada. The ...

, where they won the

Cyprus Cup The Cyprus Women's Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in th ...

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and

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and the

CONCACAF Women's Championship The CONCACAF W Championship (previously known as the CONCACAF Women's Championship, CONCACAF Women's Invitational Tournament, CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup and CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying) is a football competition organized by the Confede ...

. Both left following Canada's disappointing 2011 World Cup campaign. On 10 December 2012, Bavagnoli began attending Coverciano to study for her

UEFA Pro Licence UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, mandates several coaching licences for professional managers, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro Licence, the UEFA A Licence, and the UEFA B Licence. They are iss ...

—the highest coaching qualification available. She was awarded the licence on 5 July 2013, the only woman who passed. Meanwhile, she had continued to work with Morace, in various ventures related to youth football. from the 2018 until the 2021 season, Bavagnoli coached AS Roma's female Serie A side to excellent results, thus resulting in her being promoted to director responsible of the female division during 2022.

Honours

Club

;Lazio *

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 ...

(1): 1987–88 *

(1): 1998–99 ;Reggiana *

(1): 1990–91 ;Milan '82 *

(1): 1991–92 ;Torres *

(1): 1993–94 ;Agliana *

(1): 1994–95 ;Verona *

(1): 1995–96 ;Modena *

(1): 1996–97

Personal life

In 1993 Bavagnoli was helping her parents run their

perfumery Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

. At that time she enjoyed writing poetry and playing the guitar.

Notes

References

External links

*
Profile
at

(FIGC) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bavagnoli, Elisabetta 1963 births Living people Italian women's footballers Italy women's international footballers Sportspeople from Piacenza 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players Torres Calcio Femminile players Serie A (women's football) players SS Lazio Women 2015 players Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders A.S.D. Reggiana Calcio Femminile players Italian football managers Serie A (women's football) managers ACF Milan 82 players Footballers from Emilia-Romagna C.F. Euromobil Modena players