Vincenzo Italiano (born 10 December 1977) 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 c ...

manager, who is currently in charge of

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 ...

club

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

, and a former player.

Playing career

Born in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Germany to Italian parents, Italiano never played professionally in Germany, instead playing his full career in Italian football. He was a versatile

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 for his tackling and passing. He played for

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 ...

and (for most of his career)

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

first in

and later, in

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 made his debut in

with

and then appeared in Serie A again, albeit briefly, with cross-city rivals

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

on 14 January 2007 against

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

Coaching career

After his retirement as a player, he started a coaching career in Veneto for a number of amateur teams. In 2017 he joined Union ArzignanoChiampo, which won him interest from

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 ...

club

Trapani Trapani ( , ; scn, Tràpani ; lat, Drepanum; grc, Δρέπανον) is a city and municipality (''comune'') on the west coast of Sicily, in Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Trapani. Founded by Elymians, the city is still an impor ...

who hired him for the 2018–19 season. Under his guidance, Trapani concluded the 2018–19 season in second place behind champions Juve Stabia, and then successfully contested the playoff phase, winning promotion to Serie B after defeating

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

2–0 on aggregate. He was subsequently hired by another Serie B club,

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 city ...

, as the club's new head coach for the 2019–20 season. He achieved promotion with Spezia to

for the first time in the club's history after edging

Frosinone Frosinone (, local dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, the administrative seat of the province of Frosinone. It is located about south-east of Rome close to the Rome-Naples A1 Motorway. The city is the main city of the Va ...

in the promotion play-offs. He guided Spezia in their

2020–21 Serie A The 2020–21 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 119th season of top-tier Italian football, the 89th in a round-robin tournament, and the 11th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie ...

campaign, succeeding in keeping the small Ligurian club in the top flight in his debut season in the Italian top division. These results won him interest from

, who ultimately signed him as their new head coach on a two-year deal.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

Vincenzo Italiano AIC profile
1977 births Living people Italian footballers Hellas Verona F.C. players Genoa C.F.C. players A.C. ChievoVerona players Calcio Padova players A.C. Perugia Calcio players F.C. Lumezzane V.G.Z. A.S.D. players Serie A players Serie B players Association football midfielders Footballers from Karlsruhe Footballers from Baden-Württemberg Serie A managers Serie B managers Serie C managers Spezia Calcio managers ACF Fiorentina managers Italian football managers People of Sicilian descent {{Italy-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub