Roberto De Zerbi (; born 6 June 1979) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Playing career

De Zerbi started his professional career at

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

. He spent four seasons on loan to lower divisions clubs (Serie B to Serie C2). He spent 1999–2000 Serie C1 season in Como along with Alberto Comazzi and Luca Saudati of Milan. Half of the registration rights also sold to

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919, commonly referred to as Salernitana, is an Italian football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recentl ...

in 2000–01 and 2001–02 season. In June 2002 Milan bought back De Zerbi from Salernitana and sold De Zerbi to U.S. Foggia. De Zerbi signed for

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 ...

side

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 ...

from Catania for €2.5 million in 2006. On 8 February 2010, Napoli announced his loan transfer to Romanian

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently Sponsor (commercial), sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It ...

club

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club'', whe ...

, with the deal being made permanent on 31 August 2010 on a three-year contract.

Managerial career

Palermo

On 6 September 2016, De Zerbi was named head coach of Serie A club Palermo following

Davide Ballardini Davide Ballardini (born 6 January 1964) is an Italian football manager. He formerly played professionally for Cesena as a midfielder. He is currently the head coach of club Cremonese. Playing career A former midfielder, Ballardini spent seve ...

's departure by mutual consent due to disagreements with the board. His stint at the helm of the

Sicilians Sicilians or the Sicilian people are a Romance speaking people who are indigenous to the island of Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the largest and most populous of the autonomous regions of Italy. Origin and i ...

however turned out to be negative, with seven consecutive defeats and no points at home in three months. After a penalty shootout elimination in a home match against 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 cit ...

, De Zerbi was sacked on 30 November 2016 and replaced with former team captain Eugenio Corini.

Benevento

On 23 October 2017, De Zerbi was appointed manager of

2017–18 Serie A The 2017–18 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 116th season of top-tier Italian football, the 86th in a round-robin tournament and the 8th since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

newcomers Benevento. Despite the side being relegated back to Serie B at the end of the season, De Zerbi was praised for his possession-based, attacking football and transfer business.

Sassuolo

On 13 June 2018, De Zerbi was appointed manager of

Sassuolo Sassuolo (; egl, label= Modenese, Sasól ) is an Italian town, ''comune'', and industrial centre of the Province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna. Standing on the right bank of the river Secchia some southwest of Modena, the town is best known f ...

. Under his tenure, Sassuolo was praised for its footballing style coupled with overachieving results, which led the small Emilian club to two consecutive eighth place spots in the Italian top flight, missing on

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

qualification to Roma just due to goal difference at the end of the

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 Seri ...

season. In May 2021 De Zerbi announced he would leave Sassuolo by the end of the season.

Shakhtar Donetsk

On 25 May 2021, De Zerbi was announced as the new head coach of

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' ...

club

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 f ...

. On 22 September he won the

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football competition season in Ukra ...

against

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officia ...

at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

, becoming the first Italian manager to win the title. He left the club in July 2022 as a result of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. He managed to leave the club at the top of the UPL during the unfinished season.

Brighton & Hove Albion

De Zerbi was confirmed as the new head coach of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

side

on 18 September 2022, signing a four-year contract. He managed his first game in England on 1 October, in a 3–3 away draw at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

with

Leandro Trossard Leandro Trossard (born 4 December 1994) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Premier League club Arsenal and the Belgium national team. Early life Trossard was born in Maasmechelen, Limburg, to Peter Trossard ...

becoming the first Brighton player to score a Premier League hat-trick. De Zerbi lost his first game at Brighton's home stadium of

Falmer Stadium The Falmer Stadium, known for sponsorship purposes as the American Express Community Stadium and also referred to as the Amex, is a football stadium in the village of Falmer, in the City of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. With a capacity of 31, ...

on 9 October, calling his players "fantastic" despite the 1–0 defeat to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. He claimed his first win on 29 October, against the manager he replaced in Graham Potter, thrashing his

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

team 4–1.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

CFR Cluj *

: 2009–10, 2011–12 *

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

: 2009–10

Manager

Foggia * Coppa Italia Lega Pro: 2015–16 Shakhtar Donetsk *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Zerbi, Roberto 1979 births Living people Footballers from Brescia Italian footballers Italian football managers Calcio Foggia 1920 managers Palermo F.C. managers Benevento Calcio managers U.S. Sassuolo Calcio managers FC Shakhtar Donetsk managers Association football midfielders Association football forwards Italian expatriate footballers Catania S.S.D. players A.C. Milan players Calcio Padova players A.C. Monza players S.S.C. Napoli players U.S. Avellino 1912 players Como 1907 players Calcio Lecco 1912 players Calcio Foggia 1920 players S.S. Arezzo players CFR Cluj players Liga I players Expatriate footballers in Romania Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Serie A managers Ukrainian Premier League managers Italian expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Romania Expatriate football managers in Ukraine Expatriate football managers in England Italian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Italian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Italian expatriate sportspeople in England