Vincenzo Alberto Annese (born 22 September 1984 ) is an Italian professional football manager and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who is the current head coach of

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

club

NorthEast United NorthEast United FC is an Indian professional football club based in Guwahati, Assam that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was founded on 13 April 2014 during the inaugural season of Indian Supe ...

. Started his coaching careers Italy, Annese managed teams in Latvia, Ghana, West Bank, Indonesia, Belize, Kosovo and India. He won record consecutive

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

titles with

Gokulam Kerala Gokulam Kerala Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Calicut, Kerala. Founded in 2017, the club competes in the I-League, the second tier of Indian football league system. They won the 2020–21 I-League to become the ...

Early life

Annese wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a former football player for Molfetta Sportiva, and joined the

Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Rest ...

youth team. Annese began his football career as a

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 ...

for Venezia youth side. He later played for local clubs Martina Franca,

Noicattaro Noicattaro (, Barese: ; known as Noja until 1862) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bari and region of Apulia, southern Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a count ...

and Leonessa Altamura. After a brief playing career, Annese shifted his focus to coaching, He attended the Higher Institute of Physical Education (ISEF) at the

Università degli studi di Foggia The University of Foggia, located in Foggia, Italy, was founded in 1991 and was fully recognized in 1999. Although it has taken some time for the university to receive its entitlement and acknowledgement, through that timestamp it has branched off ...

and

University of Verona The University of Verona ( it, Università degli Studi di Verona) is a university located in Verona, Italy. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 12 Departments. According to business newspaper ''Il Sole 24 Ore'', it is ranked as the best no ...

, focussing on the adaptation of sports to disabled people.

Coaching career

Early career

Annese started his professional coaching career in

Fidelis Andria Fidelis Andria 2018 or simply Fidelis Andria is an Italian football club based in Andria, Apulia. The club was founded in 1971 and re-founded in 2005, 2013 and 2018. The team competes in . Fidelis Andria play their home matches at Stadio Deg ...

youth team in 2010. In 2013, he joined

Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also known ...

as coaching staff in

2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione The 2012–13 Lega Pro Prima Divisione season was the thirty-fifth football league season of Italian Lega Pro Prima Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the fifth since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro. It was divided into two phas ...

and

2013–14 Lega Pro Prima Divisione The 2013–14 Prima Divisione season is the thirty-sixth and final football league season of Italian Prima Divisione since its establishment in 1978, and the fifth since the renaming from Serie C to Lega Pro. It is divided into two phases: the r ...

. From 2015 to 2016, he was a technical coach with

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

at various youth international levels.

Bechem United

In January 2017, Annese joined

Ghanaian Premier League The is the top professional association football division of the football league system in Ghana. Officially formed in 1956 to replace a previous league incarnation, the Gold Coast Club Competition (which began in 1933 and ended in 1953–54), t ...

club

Bechem United Bechem United Football Club (officially: ''Bechem United Football Club'' or the "Hunters") is a Ghanaian professional football club, based in Bechem in the Ahafo Region They are competing in the Ghanaian Premier League and currently participating ...

as the head coach for

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season. Under him the club became 2017 Ghana Super Cup runner-up.

Ahli Al-Khaleel

On 25 July 2017, Annese joined

West Bank Premier League The 2010–11 season marked the creation of the first professional league in the territories and saw high-profile signings for many clubs. Most notably Fadi Lafi (Hilal Al-Quds), Hernán Madrid (Wadi Al-Nes), and many Arab citizens of Israel wh ...

club

Ahli Al-Khaleel Ahli al-Khaleel ( ar, أهلي الخليل) is a Palestinian professional football team from the city of Hebron, that plays in the West Bank Premier League. History Ahli Al-Khaleel won the 2015 edition of the Palestine Cup and qualified for the ...

on a one-year deal as the head coach. He lead the club to finals of

2016–17 Palestine Cup The 2016–17 Palestine Cup is the 2016–17 season of the top football cup in Palestine. There are two competitions, the Gaza Strip Cup for clubs in the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank Cup for clubs in the West Bank. A two-legged Palestine Cup fin ...

and 2017

West Bank Super Cup The West Bank Super Cup is the football super cup competition in the West Bank of Palestine, played between the winners of the West Bank Premier League and the West Bank Cup. Results See also *Palestine Cup *Gaza Strip Super Cup The Gaza Str ...

PSIS Semarang

On 24 March 2018, Annese joined Liga 1 club PSIS Semarang as the head coach for

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

season.

Belize

On 17 June 2019, Annese signed a one-year contract with Belize national football team as the head coach.

Gokulam Kerala

On 19 August 2020, Annese joined

club

. Under him, the club won their maiden

title in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season and qualified for the

2022 AFC Cup The 2022 AFC Cup was the 19th edition of the AFC Cup, Asia's secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This season was the last in an all-year-round (spring-to-autumn) schedule; from 2023 the competit ...

group stage. Annese created history in the I-League with longest unbeaten streak of 21 games. The previous record-holder was

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

, who held it for 17 games (from February 20, 2009 to January 22, 2010). Under him Gokulam Kerala won the

2021–22 I-League The 2021–22 I-League (also known as Hero I-League for sponsorship reasons) is the 15th season of I-League, last as the top tier of Indian football league system, since its establishment in 2007. All the matches are hosted in a bio-secure bubb ...

title, became the first club to win consecutive I-League titles. He received 2021–22 I-League Best Coach award At the 2022 AFC Cup group stage opener, Gokulam Kerala achieved a historic 4–2 win against

club

ATK Mohun Bagan ATK Mohun Bagan FC () is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club competes in Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club, which was formed as a merger between the football section of m ...

. On June 1, 2022 Annese announced that he won't be continuing with Gokulam Kerala.

NorthEast United

On 8 December 2022, Annese joined Indian Super League club

as the new head coach after the club sacked

Marco Balbul Marco Balbul ( he, מרקו בלבול; born 13 July 1967) is an Israeli football manager and former player. Early life Balbul was born in Tirat Carmel, Israel as the youngest child of Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents who immigrated from Egy ...

mid-season.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Bechem United * Ghana Super Cup: 2017 Ahli Al-Khaleel *

Palestine Cup The Palestine Cup is the main national association football competition in Palestine. It is sanctioned by the Palestinian Football Association. Past competitions were more expansive including clubs from all tiers of Palestinian football. For the ...

runner-up: 2016–17 *

runner-up: 2017 Gokulam Kerala *

, 2021–22 Individual * Syed Abdul Rahim Award (

Best Coach): 2021–22

References

External links