Manlio Scopigno (20 November 1925 – 25 September 1993) was an Italian professional

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 ...

player and coach. Known as "il Filosofo" (the Philosopher), he is best known for coaching

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

to win their only

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 ...

title in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

Playing career

Born in Paularo, in the

province of Udine The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian dialect, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, borderi ...

, he moved to

Rieti Rieti (; lat, Reate, Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina re ...

at a young age. He began playing as a

right-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 s ...

for

between the

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega Pro ...

and

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 ...

. He moved to Salernitana, with whom he played in the Serie B; in the 1948–49 season, Scopigno played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

against

Lecce Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...

due to 's injury; he conceded four goals. In 1951, he joined Napoli. After scoring his first

goal against

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label=Comasco dialect, Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and ...

, Scopigno suffered a knee injury in 1951; this ultimately ended his career, as he only played a few more games for Napoli and Catanzaro.

Managerial career

After having coached Rieti, and Ortona, Scopigno was appointed assistant coach of

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

in 1959. He became head coach in 1961, remaining in charge until 1965. Scopigno had a short experience with

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 nat ...

in the

1965–66 Serie A The 1965–66 Serie A season was won by Internazionale. Teams Brescia, Napoli and SPAL had been promoted from Serie B. Final classification Results Top goalscorers References *''Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio - La Storia 1898-2004'', P ...

, before being appointed head coach of newly-promoted side

in 1966. In 1967, Cagliari participated in the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

as the " Chicago Mustangs"; Scopigno led his side to a third-place finish. He helped Cagliari win their first Serie A title in the 1969–70 season. Scopigno left in 1972. Scopigno ended his coaching career having also taken charge of

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

in 1973 and

between 1974 and 1976.

Honours

Manager

Cagliari *

: 1969–70

References

1925 births 1993 deaths Footballers from the Province of Udine Italian men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks FC Rieti players US Salernitana 1919 players SSC Napoli players US Catanzaro 1929 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Italian football managers FC Rieti managers LR Vicenza managers Bologna FC 1909 managers Cagliari Calcio managers Chicago Mustangs (1967–68) head coaches AS Roma managers Serie A managers Serie B managers Serie C managers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) head coaches Italian expatriate football managers Italian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States {{Italy-footy-defender-1920s-stub