Giuseppe Biava (born 8 May 1977) is an Italian football coach and former player who played as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. Throughout his career he played for Italian clubs Albinese, AlbinoLeffe, Biellese, Palermo,

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

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

, and

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 (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology ...

; he won a

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 ...

with Lazio in 2013. He was most recently in charge as head coach at AlbinoLeffe.

Club career

AlbinoLeffe

A centre back, Biava started his career with the Leffe youth team, before moving to newly promoted

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 ...

team Albinese in 1995. During his time with Albinese before the 1998 merger with the Leffe to found AlbinoLeffe, Biava achieved a promotion to Serie C2 in 1997. In 1998–99, Biava helped AlbinoLeffe to ensure promotion to Serie C1. After a one-year loan at Serie C2 side Biellese, Biava returned to AlbinoLeffe in 2001, and was part of the team that won the promotion playoffs in 2003, thus ensuring them a

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

place. In 2003–04, Biava marked his Serie B debut, and scored the goal which ensured the first AlbinoLeffe victory in the league, a 1–0 win against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

Palermo

His performances in the league provoked interest from Serie B club Palermo, which signed him during the January 2004 transfer window. Biava immediately gained a place in the regular lineup, forming a defensive line together with Pietro Accardi and leading the ''rosanero'' back to

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 Cop ...

after over 30 years. Biava was confirmed by head coach

Francesco Guidolin Francesco Guidolin (; born 3 October 1955) is an Italian football manager and former player, most recently the manager of Premier League team Swansea City. He has coached various Italian club sides in Serie A, winning the 1996–97 Coppa Ital ...

as a key player during the 2004–05 season, coincidentally his first season in the top flight, which ended with a historical first qualification for Palermo in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. However, he did not confirm his performances in the following season, where he was mostly featured as backup player. With Guidolin back at the helm of Palermo in 2006–07, Biava regained a more important role in the Palermo squad, returning to play at his usual levels. During the summer 2007, Biava refused an offer from his childhood team Atalanta, preferring instead to stay at Palermo even though the club management could not ensure him a place as a regular. He successively agreed a contract extension with the ''rosanero'' until June 2009.

Genoa

In June 2008 Biava was sold to

for €500,000, with

Cesare Bovo Cesare Bovo (born 14 January 1983) is an Italian retired professional footballer who played as a centre back. Club career Early career Bovo grew up playing in the A.S. Roma youth system, while in the 2001–02 season he only played a game in ...

moving the opposite way. At Genoa, he quickly established himself as a regular for the ''rossoblu''. In their 2008–09 Serie A campaign ending in fifth place he partnered with

Salvatore Bocchetti Salvatore Bocchetti (; born 30 November 1986) is an Italian football coach and former player who is the assistant coach of club Hellas Verona. He played as a centre-back as a player. Club career Bocchetti started his professional career at Asc ...

and/or

Matteo Ferrari Matteo Ferrari (; born 5 December 1979) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender He played top-flight football for several Italian clubs in Serie A, Everton of the Premier League, and for the Montreal Impact in Major Leagu ...

. In the first half of 2009–10 season he often partnered with Bocchetti but in January faced competition in new signing

Dario Dainelli Dario Dainelli (; born 9 June 1979) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Club career Early career Born in Pontedera, Province of Pisa, Dainelli started his professional career at Empoli. He spent his early ...

while the team's coach preferred a 3–5–2 formation with 3 central defenders and 2 wing-backs.

Lazio

On 1 February 2010, Biava joined

for a transfer fee of €800,000 (including other costs Lazio paid a total of €1.04 million). Along with new signing André Dias, he became the backbone of the Lazio team starting in 11 matches in the second half of the 2009–10 season and helped the club survive the relegation battle. In the 2010–11 season Biava made 36 appearances, guiding Lazio to a strong 5th-place finish. In the 2011–12 season, Biava was limited to 31 appearances due to muscle issues. He made a career high 43 appearances in all competitions in the 2012–13 season, leading Lazio to the quarter finals of

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Aren ...

where they were knocked out by Fenerbahçe, and helped Lazio defeat traditional rivals

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

to win the

2012–13 Coppa Italia The 2012–13 Coppa Italia, also known as TIM Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the 66th edition of the competition. As in the previous year, 78 clubs have taken part in the tournament. Napoli were the cup holders. Lazio were the winners, thus qua ...

. Biava missed large portions of the first half of the 2013–14 season, but finished the season strongly, making 24 appearances in all competitions.

Atalanta

On 17 July 2014, Biava signed for home province club

Atalanta B.C. Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. The club plays in Serie A, having gained promotion from Serie B in 2010–11. Atalanta was founded in 1907 by Lice ...

as a free agent.

Coaching career

In 2016, Biava took on his first coaching role as a youth coach at Pontisola. He successively accepted an offer as a youth coach at AlbinoLeffe in 2017. Under his tenure, he led the Under-19 to promotion to Campionato Primavera 2, the second-highest tier in Italian youth football leagues. On 23 June 2022, AlbinoLeffe announced to have promoted Biava as head coach for the

2022–23 Serie C The 2022–23 Serie C is the ninth season of the unified Serie C division, the third tier of the Italian football league system. Changes The league will be composed by 60 teams, geographically divided into three different groups. The group compos ...

campaign, with former Giana Erminio boss Raul Bertarelli as his assistant. He was dismissed on 21 February 2023.

Honours

Lazio *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

References

External links

Biava's profile (from La Gazzetta dello Sport website)

Lega Serie A profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biava, Giuseppe 1977 births Living people People from Seriate Footballers from Lombardy Italian footballers Men's association football defenders U.C. AlbinoLeffe players Palermo F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players S.S. Lazio players Atalanta B.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Serie D players A.S.D. Biellese 1902 players Italian football managers U.C. AlbinoLeffe managers