César Vinicio Cervo de Luca (born 19 May 1979), known as just César, is a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former defender. César also holds Italian nationality through descent.

Playing career

Born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, César started his career with hometown club

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club () is a Brazilian sports club based in the neighbourhood of Laranjeiras, in Rio de Janeiro, being the oldest football club in the state since its foundation in 1902. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, th ...

Chievo and Catania

In January 2004, he was signed by Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

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. History The name came from t ...

on a free transfer. He signed a 6-month contract with an option to extend to 30 June 2007. In January 2005 he was loaned to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as 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 b ...

club

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

along with Higo. Catania later bought him in co-ownership deal for €150,000.Calcio Catania SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2007 He followed the team promoted to

and played his first Serie A match on 18 February 2007 against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

since he left Chievo 3 years before. That season, he only played 8 Serie A matches. In June 2007, Chievo was announced to buy back the player from Catania through a closed tender bid mediated by

Lega Calcio The Lega Nazionale Professionisti (Italian for National Professionals League), commonly known as Lega Calcio (Football League), was the governing body that ran the two highest football divisions in Italy, namely Serie A and Serie B, from 1946 to ...

for €440,000. He was a regular starter for Chievo in

2007–08 Serie B The 2007–08 Serie B regular season is the seventy-sixth since its establishment. It started on August 25, 2007, and ended with the promotion playoff final on June 15, 2008. At the end of the year, three teams were promoted to Serie A, the fir ...

, partnered with Davide Mandelli, winning the ''cadetto'' that season and promoted back to Serie A in 2008. With arrival of Santiago Morero and

Mario Yepes Mario Alberto Yepes Díaz (; born 13 January 1976) is a Colombian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, centre-back. He is well known for his time in Paris Saint-Germai ...

, César became a backup again in

2008–09 Serie A The 2008–09 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 107th season of top-tier Italian football, the 77th in a round-robin tournament. It began on 30 August 2008 and ended on 31 May 2009, with the announcement of the ...

Padova

In January 2009, he was loaned to

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

. He won

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

runner-up with team and promoted to Serie B. But Padova did not exercise the right to buy him in co-ownership deal. However, in July 2009 he was signed outright for free, agreed a 2-year contract.

Post-playing and coaching career

After retirement as a professional footballer, César became a "team manager" of

Virtus Entella Virtus Entella, commonly referred to as Entella, is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in Chiavari, Liguria. Founded in 1914, the club currently competes in the . Entella will play in Serie B 2025/26 after winning ...

. In May 2019, he joined

Alfredo Aglietti Alfredo Aglietti (born 16 September 1970) is an Italian football manager and a former player who played as a striker. Playing career Aglietti started his career at amateur club Rondinella before a stint at Pontedera saw him land in Reggina by ...

's coaching staff at

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. He subsequently followed Aglietti at

and Reggina. On 21 December 2022, César was hired by

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

as an assistant following Aglietti's appointment as head coach. He left Brescia together with Aglietti a few months later, then re-joining him at fellow Serie B club

Lecco Lecco (, , ; ) is a city of approximately 47,000 inhabitants in Lombardy, Northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). The Bergamasqu ...

between February and April 2024.

Honours

: 2008

References

External links

Football.it Profile

La Gazzetta dello Sport Profile (2007–08 season)

La Gazzetta dello Sport Profile

Futpedia Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cesar 1979 births Living people Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Fluminense FC players AC ChievoVerona players Catania FC players Calcio Padova players SS Juve Stabia players US Cremonese players Virtus Entella players Serie A players Serie B players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Brazilian people of Italian descent Men's association football central defenders Footballers from Rio de Janeiro (city)