Gennaro Ruotolo (, ; born 20 March 1967) is an Italian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and manager who played as a

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 ...

Career

Playing career

Ruotolo started his career with

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

in 1984, but is best known for having been a key player for

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

for over a decade; he joined the ''Grifone'' in 1988 to left it only in 2002 to join

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

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 ...

. During his spell at Genoa he lifted the

1996 Anglo-Italian Cup File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. He played for Livorno until 2006, except for a four-months time at

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

n side

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

(February–June 2003), being part of both rosters which gained promotion to

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 then

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 ...

, and playing two top division seasons with the ''amaranto''. He left Livorno in 2006 to join newly promoted

Serie C2 Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

club

in a comeback to his first professional team. He left Sorrento in December 2007 by mutual consent and then joined amateur

Promozione The Promozione (, "promotion") is the sixth level in the Italian football league system. Each individual league winner within the Promozione level progresses to their closest regional league in the Eccellenza level. Depending on each league's lo ...

side Massa Lubrense for the remainder of the season. In his playing career, Ruotolo received three call-ups for the Italy national team, all in 1991, with a single appearance, a 2–0 home win against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

on 12 June.

Managerial career

In July 2008, he returned to Livorno, this time as assistant to the newly appointed coach

Leonardo Acori Leonardo Acori (born 16 January 1955) is an Italian football manager and former player, who played as a midfielder. Playing career Acori played since 1974 to 1983 in the football team of G.S. Banco di Roma. Coaching career Acori's first coachin ...

. On 23 May 2009 Ruotolo was appointed on an interim basis to replace

at the helm of Livorno for the final Serie B league game and the following promotion play-offs in an attempt to bring his side back to the top flight. He debuted with a late 3–2 away win to

Ascoli Ascoli may refer to: Places in Italy *Ascoli Satriano, a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region *Province of Ascoli Piceno, a province of the Marche region **Ascoli Piceno, a city which is the seat of the province above ...

that left his side in third place at the end of the regular season. In the promotion play-offs, Livorno was coupled with Tuscan rivals Grosseto in the semifinals: after a shock 0–2 loss in the first leg, Ruotolo's side managed to make an impressive comeback by defeating their opponent in a 4–1 home win that ensured Livorno a place in the playoff finals against

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. ...

. In the finals, Ruotolo then managed to guide Livorno to defeat Brescia 5–2 on aggregate, thus marking an immediate Serie A return for the ''amaranto'' club. He subsequently accepted an offer from Livonro to become the club's head coach on a permanent basis; however the move was later dismissed by the Italian Football Federation due to Ruotolo lacking the required UEFA Pro coaching badges, and

Vittorio Russo Vittorio Russo (born 16 February 1939 in Trieste) is an Italian football manager and former player. He last served head coach of Serie A outfit A.S. Livorno Calcio until October 2009. Career A former player with Sambenedettese, he started a coa ...

was instead appointed as acting head coach, with Ruotolo being however often referred as the "real" Livorno boss. He was removed from his assistant coach position on 20 October 2009, after a 1–2 home loss to

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 ...

. In January 2010 he was re-hired by Livorno chairman Aldo Spinelli, this time as new youth coach of the ''Primavera'' under-19 squad. On 5 April 2010 he was reappointed back at the helm of Livorno, taking over from dismissed head coach

Serse Cosmi Serse Cosmi (born 5 May 1958) is an Italian football coach, most recently in charge of Rijeka. Career Early career Cosmi was born in 1958 in Ponte San Giovanni, a Perugia ''frazione''. His father, a cycling fan, called him Serse after Faust ...

, in a desperate attempt to save the team from relegation. He was this time allowed to act as head coach despite still not having the required coaching badges, thanks to a 60-day derogation from the Italian Football Federation. The attempt was not successful, and Livorno went down to Serie B after only one season in the Italian top flight. In June 2010 Ruotolo was announced as new head coach of

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 ...

, who will play

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Lega Pro Seconda Divisione was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consisted of 36 teams, but in the 2011–12 season, there were 41 teams divided geographically into two divisions of 2 ...

in the 2010–11 season. On 14 December 2011

unveiled Ruotolo as their new manager until the end of the season, after the sacking of previous manager Maurizio Sarri following the 4–0 away defeat to

Pro Vercelli Football Club Pro Vercelli 1892, commonly referred to as Pro Vercelli, is an Italian football club based in Vercelli, Piedmont. The club is mostly renowned as one of the most successful teams in the early football era of Italy, with seven natio ...

. By doing so he returned to the club where he had both begun and ended his playing career and thus reignited his close association with Sorrento and

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

, the region of his birth. Since 25 October 2012 to the end of the season he has been the coach of

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 ...

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest 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 the 1978� ...

, a position he kept until March 2013. He successively served a full season as head coach of Serie D amateurs Sangiovannese in 2015–16.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruotolo, Gennaro 1967 births Living people Italian men's footballers Italian football managers Italy men's international footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Serie A players Serie B players Genoa CFC players SS Arezzo players US Livorno 1915 players ASD Sorrento players Al-Ittihad Club (Jeddah) players Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia ASD Sorrento managers US Livorno 1915 managers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from the Province of Caserta