Luigi Maifredi (born 20 April 1947), commonly known as Gigi Maifredi, 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 ...

manager, currently working as a technical collaborator of Italian club

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 ...

Career

Born in Lograto (

Province of Brescia The Province of Brescia ( it, provincia di Brescia; Brescian: ) is a Province in the Lombardy administrative region of northern Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 (as of January 2019) and its capital is the city of Brescia. With an ar ...

), started out playing in his hometown club's youth system, and later played for Rovereto and

Portogruaro Portogruaro ( vec, Porto, fur, Puart) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. The city is the centre of a district, made up of 11 ''comuni'', which form the Venezia Orientale with the San Donà di Piav ...

. Maifredi's coaching career began in 1976 with amateur side Real Brescia. He later served as assistant manager of

Crotone Crotone (, ; nap, label= Crotonese, Cutrone or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( grc, Κρότων or ; la, Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages unti ...

, and also had spells in the lower divisions of Italian football with

Lumezzane Lumezzane (Brescian: ; locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. With a population of 22,255 () it is one of the largest towns in the province of Brescia. It is situated in the Gobbia Valley, which is a side val ...

and Orceana, as well as Pspitaletto, with whom he won the Serie C2, Girone B title during the 1986–87 season. In 1987, Maifredi was appointed as manager of

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 ...

side

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, under the club's president Luigi Corioni. During his three seasons with Bologna, his attacking style of play proved to be highly effective; after joining the team, he helped the club win the Serie B title and achieve promotion to Serie A in his first season, and later helped the team avoid relegation in his second season, and subsequently qualify for 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 ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

. However, Maifredi is most noted for his short spell with

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

, whom he joined after replacing

Dino Zoff Dino Zoff (; born 28 February 1942) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the oldest ever winner of the World Cup, which he earned as captain of the Italian national team in the 1982 tournament, at th ...

in 1990. During his only season in Turin, the club were known for their inconsistent performances. After a strong first half of the season, the club suffered a loss of form, during which they lost six games in a row. Maifredi was eventually sacked at the end of the season, following the club's failure to qualify for European football after placing seventh in

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 ...

, also losing out 5–1 to

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

in the

1990 Supercoppa Italiana The 1990 Supercoppa Italiana was a pre-season football match contested by the 1989–90 Serie A winners Napoli and the 1989–90 Coppa Italia winners Juventus. The match resulted in a 5–1 win for Napoli. Match details See also * J ...

final; however, he managed to reach the semi-finals of the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

and the quarter-finals of the

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 ...

. Following his disappointing spell with Juventus, over the course of his coaching career, Maifredi managed several clubs in Italy, such as Bologna once again,

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 ...

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

, and

, among other teams, as well as having short coaching spells in Tunisia with

Esperance Sportive de Tunis Esperance may refer to: * Esperance (town), New York * Esperance (village), New York * Esperance, Quartier Militaire (village), Quartier Militaire, Moka, Mauritius * Esperance, Washington * Esperance, Western Australia Esperance is a tow ...

, and Spain with

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 2 August 1940, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish football, holding home matches ...

; however, he encountered less success with other teams. In 2005, Maifredi was on course to sign with

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

, but the club's supporters were not keen on Maifredi's appointment, and even demonstrated against it, which ultimately forced the club's president

Claudio Lotito Claudio Lotito (born 9 May 1957 in Rome) is an Italian entrepreneur and politician. He is the owner and president of the Serie A football club S.S. Lazio since 2004. Lotito earned his high school diploma in Classics at Ugo Foscolo Classical L ...

to back down and appoint Giuseppe Papadopulo instead. In December 2009, he was successively appointed as a technical consultant and later as the director of

Brescia Calcio Brescia Calcio, commonly referred to as Brescia (), is an Italian football club based in Brescia, Lombardy, that currently plays in . The club holds the record for total number of seasons (64) and consecutive seasons (18, from 1947–48 to ...

. On 24 September 2013, after thirteen years since his last coaching appointment with Reggiana in 2000, Maifredi returned to the coaching bench for a spare game, co-training with assistant coach Fabio Micarelli after Brescia's head coach

Marco Giampaolo Marco Giampaolo (; born 2 August 1967) is an Italian manager, and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the head coach of Serie A club Sampdoria. Playing career Although born in Bellinzona, Switzerland, ...

failed to report for three days. The next day, Brescia appointed Maifredi as new head coach, thus ending a 13-year absence of his from head coaching roles into football. His period as a manager was however only on a caretaker basis, as he left after only one game – a 0–2 loss to Latina – to leave room for new boss

Cristiano Bergodi Cristiano Bergodi (born 14 October 1964) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer and a professional football Manager (association football), manager, currently in charge of Romanian side Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe, Sep ...

Style of management

Maifredi's footballing approach, which made use of tactics based on a defensive line which employed

zonal marking In association football, marking is an organized defensive tactic which aims to prevent a member of the opposing team (usually a striker) from taking control of the ball. Several marking strategies exist in football, and they mostly differ from ...

, and an overall fast, attractive, and dynamic playing style, has been famously described as ''calcio champagne'' ("

champagne wine Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, sp ...

football," in Italian) in the media; this was due to both his teams' prominent attacking and entertaining style of play, and also as a reference to his former professional career as a champagne wine representative for

Veuve Clicquot Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and i ...

Ponsardin. His tactics were likened to the system used by

Arrigo Sacchi Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...

in the Italian media. During his time with Orceana and Bologna, Maifredi used a 4–3–3 formation. With Juventus, he instead used a 4–2–2–2 formation. His teams often used sweeper-keeper.

Outside of football

In 2003, during the Italian entertainment show '' Quelli che... il Calcio'', which was presented by

Simona Ventura Simona Ventura (born 1 April 1965) is an Italian television presenter. Television career Ventura was born in Bentivoglio. She started in TV on "Domani Sposi" with Giancarlo Magalli on Rai Uno. Her love for sport took her into sports reporting ...

at the time, Maifredi jokingly coached a team of former footballers, known as the "Maifredi Team," that reproduced the goals of the day to the viewers. He later also worked as a pundit for ''

Mediaset Mediaset Italia S.p.A., also known as Mediaset, is an Italian-based mass media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country. The company is controlled by the holding company MFE - MediaForEurope. Founded in 1987 by former ...

Premium''.

References

External links

Profile
at myjuve.it * 1947 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Brescia Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Serie D players Portogruaro Calcio ASD players Italian football managers Segunda División managers Bologna FC 1909 managers Juventus FC managers Genoa CFC managers Venezia FC managers Brescia Calcio managers Delfino Pescara 1936 managers Espérance Sportive de Tunis managers Albacete Balompié managers AC Reggiana 1919 managers Italian expatriate football managers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Tunisia Expatriate football managers in Tunisia Italian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate football managers in Spain {{Italy-footy-bio-stub