Nevio Scala (; born 22 November 1947) 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 ...

sporting director,

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

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 ...

. Throughout his footballing career, he 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 ...

for several Italian clubs, and won several titles during his time with

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 ...

. As a manager, he is mostly known for his role as head coach of Parma during the club's golden age of the 1990s, which saw him lead the team from

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 ...

to several European triumphs.

Playing career

Born in

Lozzo Atestino Lozzo Atestino is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about southwest of Venice and about southwest of Padua, in the Colli Euganei regional park. Lozzo Atestino borders the following munici ...

Province of Padua The Province of Padua (''Provincia di Padova'') is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua. Geography It has an area of 2,142 km2, and a total population of 936,492 (2016) making it the most populated pr ...

, Veneto, Scala enjoyed a successful career as a midfielder for several Italian top-flight teams —

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region at the northern base of the ''Monte Berico'', where it straddles the Bacchiglione River. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and east of Milan. Vicenza is a th ...

and

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

— and subsequently played for lower-ranked clubs

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 ...

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

and Adriese in the final years of his career. As a player, with A.C. Milan, he won 1 Italian Championship ( 1967–68), 1 European Champions Cup ( 1968–69), and 1

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

( 1967–68).

Coaching career

As a coach, he led Calabrian third division club

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 ...

in 1988, and then moved to Serie B club

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. He held that position for six years, leading the Emilian club to its first promotion to the Italian top flight in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, and subsequently turned the team into one of the major clubs in the Italian

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 ...

, thanks also to the relevant financial backing from chairman and Parmalat founder

Calisto Tanzi Calisto Tanzi (17 November 1938 – 1 January 2022) was an Italian businessman and convicted fraudster. He founded Parmalat in 1961, after dropping out of college. Parmalat collapsed in 2003 with a €14bn ($20bn; £13bn) hole in its accounts ...

, winning several domestic and European titles. During his time at Parma, Scala won the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

and the European Super Cup in 1993, and 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 Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

. He also managed runners-up medals in the Coppa Italia in

, in the Cup Winners' Cup in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, and twice in the Supercoppa Italiana in

and

, while his best result in the league was a third-place finish during the 1994–95 Serie A season. He left Parma in June 1996. During the 1996–97 season, Scala accepted an offer from

Luciano Gaucci Luciano Gaucci (December 28, 1938 – February 1, 2020) was an Italian entrepreneur and sportsman. He was the owner of various clubs: * Perugia Calcio, a football club based in Perugia, Umbria. * Viterbese Calcio, a football club based in Viterbo, ...

to become head coach of struggling

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 part o ...

, but did not manage to escape relegation to Serie B for his side. He successively pursued a number of experiences abroad, becoming head coach of German club

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

in 1997, with whom he won the Intercontinental Cup. He left the club in 1998. In 2000, he became another Italian coach after

Giuseppe Meazza Giuseppe "Peppino" Meazza (; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979), also known as il Balilla, was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 242 goals in 365 games for the ...

and

Sandro Puppo Sandro Puppo (; 28 January 1918 – 16 October 1986) was an Italian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Club career During his playing days, Puppo played for Italian clubs Piacenza, Ambrosiana, Venezia and A.S. Roma i ...

to manage a Turkish team by accepting an offer from Beşiktaş, and then went on to serve as head coach for Ukraine's

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

where he won Ukraine Champion and Cup 2002 and Russians

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * WB ...

winning the Russian Cup 2003, the latter being his last head coaching experiences to date. He currently lives in his hometown city of Lozzo Atestino, where he is member of the local city council since 2007, after running unsuccessfully as mayor in 2007. He is currently active as a football

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

for

Rai Radio 1 Rai Radio 1 (''Radio Uno'') is an Italian radio channel operated by the state-owned public-broadcasting organisation RAI and specialising in news, sports, talk programmes, and popular music. History The channel is the direct descendant of the ...

, where he regularly comments Serie A games and gives his answers to live phone comments and questions on Sunday late night show ''Domenica sport''. In the early 2010s, Scala expressed a desire to return to coaching, being linked with

Motherwell F.C. Motherwell Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Motherwell have not dropped out of the top-flight of Scottish football since 1985, and have l ...

and later with

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

in 2010. In July 2015, he was confirmed as new chairman of a refounded Parma, after the original club folded due to financial issues, while former player

Luigi Apolloni Luigi Apolloni (; born 2 May 1967) is an Italian football manager and former player, who played as a centre-back. At club level, Apolloni is mainly remembered for his time with Italian side Parma Calcio 1913, where he won several titles during h ...

was chosen as head coach. Parma managed to return to the professional Italian leagues that season, and clinched promotion from

Serie D The Serie D () is the top level of semi-professional football in the country. The fourth tier of the Italian league system, the competition sits beneath the third professional league, Serie C. It is administered by the Lega Nazionale Dilettant ...

into

Lega Pro 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 ...

on 17 April 2016. Scala resigned from chairmanship in November 2016, in disagreement with the club owners' decision to sack head coach

and technical director

Lorenzo Minotti Lorenzo Minotti (; born 8 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a defender. Throughout his club career, he played for Italian sides Cesena, Parma, Cagliari, Torino, and Treviso; he is mostly remembered for hi ...

, both former players of his during his days as Parma manager.

Honours

Player

Milan *

: 1967–68 *

European Cup 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 competit ...

: 1968–69 *

: 1967–68

Managerial

Parma *

: 1991–92; runner-up 1994–95 *

: 1992–93; runner-up 1993–94 * European Super Cup: 1993 *

: 1994–95 * Supercoppa Italiana: runner-up

Borussia Dortmund * Intercontinental Cup: 1997 Shakhtar Donetsk *

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

: 2001–02 *

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

: 2001–02 Spartak Moscow *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

: runner-up 2004

References