Walter Alfredo Novellino (born 4 June 1953; ), is an Italian football manager and former player, who played 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 ...

Club career

Novellino was born at

Montemarano Montemarano is a town and ''comune'', former Latin bishopric and present titular see in the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. History The existence of the town is documented since the 11th century. During the Norm ...

, province of Avellino. After spending his childhood in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, Brazil, he later returned to Italy, and started his professional career with

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, then obtaining his major successes with

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

and

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

, and being nicknamed ''Monzon'' (after an Argentine boxer) due to both his physical resemblance to him and his determination on the pitch. Novellino announced his retirement in 1987. In his first season with Milan, he helped the club to their tenth

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 Cop ...

title in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

. When the club was relegated following their involvement in the

Totonero 1980 Totonero 1980 or Totonero was a match-fixing scandal in Italy in 1980 in Serie A and Serie B. The participants in this scandal were Avellino, Bologna, Lazio, Milan, and Perugia of Serie A and Palermo and Taranto of Serie B, all of whom were decla ...

match-fixing scandal, he remained with the team and helped Milan win the Serie B title and immediately obtain promotion back to Serie A; during the

1980–81 Serie B The Serie B 1980–81 was the forty-ninth tournament of this competition played in Italy since its creation. Teams Varese, Rimini, Catania and Foggia had been promoted from Serie C, while Pescara, Milan and Lazio had been relegated from Serie ...

season, he notably scored the goal against Monza which secured promotion for the club.

International career

Novellino won one cap for the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

in 1978.

Style of play

A talented yet tenacious and hard-working midfielder, Novellino was known for excellent technical ability, offensive capabilities, fighting spirit, and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

skills. Although he was usually played as an

attacking 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 ...

, he was also capable of playing as a winger, as a

second striker Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, or as a forward.

Managerial career

Novellino made his debut in management in 1992 with Perugia of Serie C1, but this was short-lived. Next season, he moved to Gualdo whom he led in two years to win first Serie C2 and then to a spot in the Serie C1 promotion play-off finals which they eventually lost to Avellino. He then went on to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie 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 season. It had been ...

sides Perugia,

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

and then in

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

whom he led to

for the first time in the club history. In 2000, he led

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

to a Serie A promotion, and repeated the feat the following season with

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 ...

. In 2002, he joined Sampdoria, immediately leading the team to a Serie A promotion, the fourth time he'd helped a team achieve this goal. In his first Serie A season with Sampdoria, they achieved a 5th place and a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

qualification, but lost the battle with

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

for the last

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

place. He left Sampdoria in 2007 to join

, where he was fired on 16 April 2008 following disappointing results that left the team in the relegation zone; he was replaced by

Gianni De Biasi Giovanni "Gianni" De Biasi (, sq, Xhovani "Xhani" De Biazi), born 16 June 1956 is an Italian football coach and former player. He holds dual Italian and Albanian citizenship. De Biasi was the first coach of the Albania national team to lead t ...

who ultimately managed to save the ''granata'' from relegation. On 8 December, only a few months after his dismissal, he was called back to Torino following the sacking of De Biasi, taking over the team in 18th place and 12 only points achieved in 15 games. He was fired once again on 24 March 2009, after a sequence of negative results that left Torino in deep relegation zone, being replaced by

Giancarlo Camolese Giancarlo Camolese (born 25 February 1961 in Turin) is an Italian Association football, football (soccer) manager, TV sports caster, ex footballer, university lecturer at SUISM in Turin and instructor at the Coverciano Training Centre for players ...

. In July 2009 he was appointed new head coach 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 ...

, with the aim to lead the Calabrians promptly back to the top flight. However, he managed to achieve only nine points in ten games, being ultimately dismissed on 24 October following a 0–2 loss to his former club Torino. On 14 February 2011 he was unveiled as new head coach of

club Livorno, replacing

Giuseppe Pillon Giuseppe "Bepi" Pillon (born 8 February 1956) is an Italian football manager and former player. Career Player Born in Preganziol, Province of Treviso, Pillon moved his first footsteps into football with hometown team Pro Mogliano, before to jo ...

at the helm of the ''Amaranto'', until 21 December 2011 when he rescinds the contract by mutual agreement with the company. On 10 March 2016 he was appointed Palermo manager. He was sacked on 11 April 2016. On 29 November 2016 he was called in by struggling Serie B side Avellino to replace outcoming manager Domenico Toscano. He was dismissed by Avellino on 3 April 2018. On 1 July 2021 he was hired by Serie C's Juve Stabia to be the club’s new manager. He was sacked on 17 October 2021 following a negative start in the 2021–22 Serie C campaign. On 28 February 2022, he was reinstated as Juve Stabia boss following the dismissal of Stefano Sottili, who had replaced him earlier during the season. He left Juve Stabia once again after the 2021–22 season.

Style of management

Novellino favours a 4–4–2 formation which makes use of a

zonal marking In association football, marking is an organized defensive tactic which aims to prevent a member of the opposing team (usually a striker) from taking control of the ball. Several marking strategies exist in football, and they mostly differ from e ...

defensive system, a deep-lying playmaker in midfield, and a physical

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

fielded alongside a more mobile and talented second striker.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

;Milan *

(1): 1978–79 *

(1): 1980–81 *

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

(1): 1981–82 ;Perugia *Coppa Piano Karl Rappan (1): 1978

Manager

;Gualdo * Serie C2 (1): 1993–94 (girone B)

Individual

*A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Novellino, Walter 1953 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Avellino Italian footballers Italy international footballers Italian football managers A.C. Perugia Calcio managers A.S. Gualdo Calcio managers Ravenna F.C. managers Venezia F.C. managers S.S.C. Napoli managers Piacenza Calcio 1919 managers U.C. Sampdoria managers Torino F.C. managers U.S. Livorno 1915 managers Modena F.C. managers Palermo F.C. managers Serie A managers Serie A players Serie B players A.C. Legnano players U.S. Cremonese players Empoli F.C. players Ascoli Calcio 1898 F.C. players Torino F.C. players A.C. Perugia Calcio players A.C. Milan players Catania S.S.D. players Association football midfielders Footballers from Campania