Fabio Celestini (born 31 October 1975) is a Swiss football manager and former player. A

defensive 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 boundari ...

, he started and finished his 15-year professional career with

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

, and also played for ten years in France and Spain, representing four clubs. He appeared with the Swiss national team at

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

. After retiring as a player, he moved into management. He is currently in charge as manager of Swiss Super League club

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

Club career

Born in

, Celestini started playing professionally with hometown's

FC Lausanne-Sport FC Lausanne–Sport (also referred to as LS) is a Swiss football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport played in the Swiss Super League in their most recent 2021-22 season, the highest tier of football i ...

, then had a four-season spell in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, spending two years each with

Troyes AC Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC), commonly known as Troyes, is a French association football club, based in Troyes, who play in Ligue 1, the highest level of France's football league system, and plays its home matches at the ...

and Olympique de Marseille. Whilst with the latter he played the

2004 UEFA Cup final The 2004 UEFA Cup Final was an association football match that took place on 19 May 2004 at Ullevi in Gothenburg, Sweden, contested between Spanish side Valencia and French side Olympique de Marseille. Valencia won the match 2–0, with goals from ...

, coming on as a substitute in the second half of the 0–2 loss to

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

. Celestini moved to Spain in 2004, playing one season with Levante UD. After the team's immediate relegation he stayed in the country, joining fellow

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club Getafe CF where he never was an undisputed starter, but managed to feature heavily in consecutive seasons. In 2007–08, as the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

outskirts side reached the quarter-finals in the

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 ...

, he scored against R.S.C. Anderlecht in a 2–1 group stage home win. On 16 February 2010, after having been regularly used in the past two seasons, albeit not as a usual first-choice, the 34-year-old Celestini announced he would not renew his contract with Getafe, choosing to return to Lausanne on a one-year deal. However, due to a break in negotiations over his future role at the club after his playing career, he decided to retire before the end of the campaign, playing his last game on 15 December against

U.S. Città di Palermo Palermo Football Club, more simply known as Palermo F.C. or Palermo (; scn, Paliemmu, link=no, ), is an Italian football club based in the Sicilian city of Palermo, conventionally founded for the first time on 1 November 1900. Among the club� ...

in the Europa League group stage. On 24 March 2015, after a spell as assistant manager at Spanish club Málaga CF and head coach with Italian amateurs Terracina Calcio 1925, Celestini replaced

Marco Simone Marco Simone (; born 7 January 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a striker and winger. He most prominently played for Milan, with whom he won four Serie A championships and two UEFA Cham ...

at Lausanne-Sport in the latter capacity, as the side was in a poor run of results in the Swiss Challenge League. Two months later, he was confirmed in this role for the next three years. In 2015–16, Celestini led his team back to the Swiss Super League after a two-year absence. On 3 October 2018, he was appointed at

FC Lugano FC Lugano is a Swiss football club based in Lugano. The club was refounded as AC Lugano in 2004 as a result of relegation and the financial situation of FC Lugano, which was founded in 1908. In 2008, the club reverted to its original name, FC Lu ...

in the same division. Just over a year later, he was ousted from his job due to bad results, and replaced by

Maurizio Jacobacci Maurizio Jacobacci (born 11 January 1963) is a Swiss professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Grenoble. Managerial career On 18 June 2021, Jacobacci was announced as the new manager of Ligue 2 side ...

. Celestini signed as manager of

FC Luzern Fussball-Club Luzern (), or simply abbreviated to FCL, is a Swiss sports club based in Lucerne (german: Luzern). It is best known for its professional football team, which plays in the Super League, the top tier of the Swiss football league s ...

on 2 January 2020. His contract with the club was terminated on 22 November 2021, after spending the majority of the season in the bottom of the league, having only accrued ten points in 14 games. On 21 November 2022, he took on as new head coach of

International career

A Switzerland international since 1998, Celestini collected 35

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and was a participant at the

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

(appearing in two incomplete matches, as the nation exited in the group stage).

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Celestini, Fabio 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Lausanne Swiss people of Italian descent Swiss men's footballers Association football midfielders Swiss Super League players FC Lausanne-Sport players Ligue 1 players ES Troyes AC players Olympique de Marseille players La Liga players Levante UD footballers Getafe CF footballers Switzerland international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Spain Swiss expatriate sportspeople in France Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Spain Swiss football managers FC Lausanne-Sport managers FC Lugano managers FC Luzern managers FC Sion managers Swiss expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Italy Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy