Ottavio Barbieri (; 30 April 1899 – 28 December 1949) was an Italian association football

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 ...

and manager. He won

campionato Alta Italia 1944 The 1944 Divisione Nazionale, better known as Campionato Alta Italia was a football championship organized by the Italian Social Republic and disputed in Northern and Central Italy in 1944 among Serie A and Serie B teams plus others. The tournament ...

(Champion of Italy de facto).

Club career

Originally from

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 ...

, as a player Barbieri was a one club man, and spent his entire club career at hometown side

International career

At international level, Barbieri most notably represented

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

1924 Summer Olympics The 1924 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1924), officially the Games of the VIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIIe olympiade) and also known as Paris 1924, were an international multi-sport event held in Paris, France. The op ...

football tournament.

Managing career

As a manager, Barbieri led L'Aquila Calcio during the 1933–34 season, winning the Italian 1st Division Championship and bringing the team 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 ...

for the first time. He later worked with

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, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

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 ...

between 1936 and 1938, before coming back to

, now as a coach, in 1939. In 1944 won

(champion of Italy

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

) with

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest cit ...

Style of management

Barbieri have introduced the sweeper role to Italian football during his time as Genoa manager. Influenced by Karl Rappan's ''verrou'', he made several alterations to the English WM system (known as the ''sistema'' in Italy), which led to his system being described as ''mezzosistema''. His system used a man-marking back-line, with three-man-marking defenders and a full-back who was described as a ''terzino volante'' (or ''vagante'', as noted at the time by former footballer and ''

Gazzetta dello Sport ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018). History and profile ''La ...

'' journalist

Renzo De Vecchi Renzo De Vecchi (; 3 February 1894 – 14 May 1967) was an Italian football player and coach who played as a defender. He competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics with Italy, and is officially the youngest player to have ever played a match for the ...

); the latter position was essentially a ''libero'', which was later also used by

Giuseppe Viani Giuseppe "Gipo" Viani (13 September 1909 – 6 January 1969) was an Italian football player and manager from the Province of Treviso who played as a midfielder. Playing career Viani was born Treviso. He played his entire career in the Italia ...

in his ''vianema'' system, and

Nereo Rocco Nereo Rocco (; 20 May 1912 – 20 February 1979) was an Italian association football player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, he is famous for having been one of the most successful head coaches in Italy, winning s ...

in his '' catenaccio'' system. The team's midfield played in a triangular shape, with the centre-half-back – known as the ''centromediano metodista'' or " metodista," in Italy – fielded in front of the back-line. His formation also made use of three forwards in attacking trident, but the right-sided winger was also tasked with assisting the midfield defensively, and therefore acted in the manner of a right-sided

wide 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 ...

, known as the ''tornante'' in Italian football.fifa.co
Intercontinental Cup 1969
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Honours

Player

;Genoa *

Italian Football Championship Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: 1922–23, 1923–24

Manager

;Spezia *

References

External links

OttavioBarbieri.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbieri, Ottavio 1899 births 1949 deaths Italian footballers Italy international footballers Association football midfielders Serie A players Serie B players Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 1924 Summer Olympics Italian football managers Atalanta B.C. managers Genoa C.F.C. players