Massimo Drago (born March 2, 1971) is 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 ...

coach and a former player.

Playing career

Born in

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 until ...

, Drago started his career at hometown club Kroton in the

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 ...

league. In 1990–91 he had a short stint at

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 ...

level with

Avellino Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

, in what was his highest point as a footballer. He successively played at

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 ...

, Serie C2 and

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 ...

level with a variety of teams before retiring in 2004.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Drago joined

's coaching staff in 2005 as a youth coach for the ''Giovanissimi'' (under-15) level. In 2008, he was promoted as technical collaborator for the first team, and was successively named as assistant coach to Leonardo Menichini in 2011. After the latter's dismissal as head coach, Drago was then promoted new head coach of Crotone in January 2012, successfully guiding the Calabrian club to safety in the

2011–12 Serie B The 2011–12 Serie B (known as the Serie bwin for sponsorship reasons) was the eightieth season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams will contest the league: 15 of which returning from the 2010–11 season, four of which promo ...

and being successively appointed as permanent manager by the end of the season. Drago was successively admitted to the

UEFA Pro Licence UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, mandates several coaching licences for professional managers, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro Licence, the UEFA A Licence, and the UEFA B Licence. They are iss ...

course due to his role as manager of a Serie B club in December 2012. Under his tenure, Crotone achieved a twelfth place in the 2012–13 season and, then, an impressive sixth place in the

2013–14 Serie B The 2013–14 Serie B (known as the Serie B Eurobet for sponsorship reasons) was the 82nd season since its establishment in 1929. A total of 22 teams contested the league: 15 of which were returning from the 2012–13 season, 4 of which were p ...

, the best result in the club history to date, thus qualifying to the promotion playoffs (then lost to

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

). On 4 February 2019, Drago was appointed as the manager of

Reggina Reggina 1914 S.r.l., commonly referred to as Reggina, is an Italian football club based in Reggio Calabria. Founded in 1914, they currently play in Serie B, and play their home matches at the 27,763 seater Stadio Oreste Granillo. They are n ...

. The adventure at Reggina ended after only 9 games. He was fired after a defeat to

Sicula Leonzio Associazione Sportiva Dilettantisica S.S. Leonzio 1909, also commonly known as Leonzio, is an Italian football club located in Lentini. They participate in the 2022–23 Eccellenza, the fifth level of the Italian football league system. Histo ...

on 4 April 2019, after only managing to get 9 points in 9 games.Calcio, Massimo Drago esonerato: già finita l’avventura sulla panchina della Reggina
ilcrotonese.it, 4 February 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drago, Massimo 1971 births Living people People from Crotone Italian footballers Serie B players F.C. Crotone players Catania S.S.D. players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Potenza S.C. players Italian football managers F.C. Crotone managers Men's association football defenders U.S. Castrovillari Calcio players Footballers from Calabria Sportspeople from the Province of Crotone