Frank Benatelli (born 19 August 1962) is a German

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 a retired player.

Club career

Born and raised in

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

, Benatelli played in his youth for the local clubs ''SV Waldesrand Linden'' and ''SV Westfalia Weitmar 09''. Still during his youth career, he joined local heavyweights

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

, where he made it into the first team and spent his entire senior career. He had to retire at the age of only 28 due to an injury of his

patellar ligament The patellar tendon is the distal portion of the common tendon of the quadriceps femoris, which is continued from the patella to the tibial tuberosity. It is also sometimes called the patellar ligament as it forms a bone to bone connection when t ...

which resulted in a limited capacity of his knee.

Career statistics

Honours

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considere ...

finalist: 1987–88

Personal life

He is the son of a German mother and an Italian father, Egidio, who hails from

Caorle Caorle (; vec, Càorle) is a coastal town in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy, located between the estuaries of the Livenza and Lemene rivers. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea between two other tourist towns, Eraclea and ...

close to

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

. He himself has two children, a daughter, Laura, and a son,

Rico The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...

, who is also a professional footballer.

References

External links

* 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from Bochum German footballers Association football midfielders German people of Italian descent German football managers VfL Bochum players VfL Bochum II players Bundesliga players TuRU Düsseldorf managers Schwarz-Weiß Essen managers Footballers from North Rhine-Westphalia {{germany-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub