Stefano Pioli (; born 20 October 1965) is an Italian football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a defender. He is the head coach at

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 Copp ...

club

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 season ...

, whom he led to the

title in 2022.

Playing career

Pioli, a native of Parma, started his own playing career for his home city team,

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

. Successively, he was signed by Juventus, with whom he made his

debut in 1984, winning the league title, the

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 competi ...

, the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup during his three seasons with the club. After being sold to Hellas Verona in 1987, Pioli moved to Fiorentina in 1989, where he spent six years of his career, before spending two seasons with

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. After successive season-long spells in

Serie C 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 ...

with Pistoiese and

Fiorenzuola Fiorenzuola d'Arda (; egl, label= Piacentino, Fiurinsöla, or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy in the province of Piacenza, part of the Emilia-Romagna region. Its name derives from ''Florentia'' ("prosperous" in Latin). The "d'Arda" portion r ...

, he ended his career in 1999 with Colorno of Eccellenza Emilia-Romagna (the sixth-highest level of Italian football at that time; the top level of the Emilia-Romagna regional league system), playing alongside his brother Leonardo.

Style of play

An elegant, tenacious, physical, and mobile defender, Pioli was capable of playing anywhere along the back-line, although he performed best as a man-marking centre-back, or "stopper," in Italian. Considered to be a promising and consistent player in his youth, his career was affected by numerous serious injuries.

Coaching career

Early career

From 1999 to 2002 Pioli coached

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

's youth team (winning a championship with Allievi Nazionali's team), and Chievo's in 2002–03. In 2003–04, he was appointed as head coach of

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 ...

club Salernitana. He moved to

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, still of Serie B, in 2004. In 2006, Pioli was named as Parma's head coach, therefore returning to his home city and marking his Serie A debut as a manager. However, he was sacked on 12 February 2007 after a 3–0 loss to

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 ...

which brought Parma down to second-last place and replaced by Claudio Ranieri. On 11 September 2007, Pioli was unveiled as new head coach of

club

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is ...

, replacing Giorgio Roselli, who was sacked after three consecutive defeats in the first three league matches, and managed to lead the Tuscan minnows to an impressive mid-table finish in their first season in the Serie B. He then served as head coach of

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 ...

for their 2008–09 Serie B campaign. In July 2009, he left Piacenza to join Sassuolo as new head coach of the ''neroverdi''.

Chievo

On 10 June 2010, Pioli was named head coach of Serie A club Chievo on a 12-month contract.

Palermo

On 2 June 2011, Pioli was named head coach of Serie A club

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

, but he was relieved of his duties just 90 days later.

Bologna

On 4 October 2011, Pioli was named new head coach of Bologna in Serie A, replacing the sacked Pierpaolo Bisoli. After two troublesome seasons with Bologna, both ended with the team struggling in the bottom half of the Serie A table but always escaping relegation, he was removed from his managerial duties on 8 January 2014, with Davide Ballardini appointed as his replacement.

Lazio

On 12 June 2014, it was confirmed Pioli's appointment as new head coach of

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

in place of Edoardo Reja. In his first season at the club, he led Lazio to a third-place Serie A finish. On 11 June 2015, he was offered a new 2-year contract with an additional year option. On 3 April 2016, Pioli was sacked after a 4–1 home defeat to city rivals Roma.

Internazionale

On 8 November 2016, Pioli was appointed as the new head coach of Internazionale on an 18-month contract. On 20 November, Inter drew 2–2 against

in a Serie A '' Derby della Madonnina'' match, Pioli's first competitive match as head coach of the club. He was sacked on 9 May 2017. Inter had won 12 of the first 16 Serie A matches that Pioli was in charge of (draw with Milan, losses to

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 ...

, Juventus and Roma), but this was followed by two draws and five losses in their last seven Serie A matches prior to his sacking.

Fiorentina

On 6 June 2017, Pioli was named new head coach of Fiorentina. He signed for two years with another optional year. Pioli was in charge of the team when on 4 March 2018 central defender and captain Davide Astori died unexpectedly; to honour the memory of the player, Pioli got a commemorative tattoo. On 9 April 2019, Pioli resigned as manager.

AC Milan

2019–20

The day after

Marco Giampaolo Marco Giampaolo (; born 2 August 1967) is an Italian manager, and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the head coach of Serie A club Sampdoria. Playing career Although born in Bellinzona, Switzerland, ...

's sacking, on 9 October 2019, Pioli was appointed as the new coach of

, on a deal to the end of the season. Pioli's Milan finished the season in sixth place in Serie A. The team scored 63 goals in the competition, their highest total since 2013. On 7 July 2020, Milan defeated Juventus 4–2. Milan scored four goals against Juventus in Serie A for the first time since March 1989, when the score was 4–0. It was Milan's first win against Juventus since 2016. On 21 July, Pioli reached an agreement with Milan for a two-year deal extension of his contract as head coach to June 2022.

2020–21

On 17 October 2020, Milan won 2–1 against Inter. It was the Milan's first Serie A against Inter since 2016. Milan also won their first four games in a Serie A season for the first time since 1995–96, when Fabio Capello was in charge. Milan scored in 24 consecutive Serie A games for the first time since 1973 (29). On 6th of December Milan beat Sampdoria 2–1, setting a new club record for goals scored in successive Serie A matches (30). Following a 2–2 draw with

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

on 16 December, AC Milan were unbeaten in 24 league games: their longest run since 1993. On 23 December, Milan beat Lazio 3–2, becoming the second side in the history of Europe's top five leagues to have scored two or more goals in more than 15 successive games in a single calendar year (after Barcelona, 18 in 1948). On 9 May 2021, Milan managed to win 3–0 against Juventus, their first away win against them since 2011. Three days later, Pioli's side beat Torino 7–0 in an away game, winning by a seven-goal margin for the first time since June 1959 against Udinese (7–0). A 2–0 away win against

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology ...

on 23 May 2021 confirmed that Milan would finish second in the league table, securing a return to the Champions League for the first time in seven seasons. Milan also set a new all-time record for away wins in a Serie A season with 16; no side has ever done better in Europe’s top five leagues in a single campaign (Real Madrid in 2011–12 and Manchester City in 2017–18 also achieved 16 away wins). In the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

, Milan reached the round of 16, where they were eliminated by

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

2021–22: Scudetto victory

As of August 2021, Pioli held the second highest win percentage in Serie A among Milan coaches, behind only

Lajos Czeizler Lajos Czeizler (5 October 1893 – 6 May 1969) was a Hungarian footballer and coach. With 11 major titles altogether, he remains one of the most successful football coaches of all time. Career Czeizler was born in a Jewish family in Heves, Au ...

. On 3 October, Milan defeated Atalanta at Gewiss Stadium 3–2, recording successive wins away at Atalanta in Serie A for the first time since 2013. On 31 October with a 2–1 win against Roma, AC Milan became the fourth team in Serie A history to win 10 of their first 11 games of the season, after Roma, Juventus (twice) and Napoli (twice). The win also ended José Mourinho's run of 43 home games unbeaten in Serie A. In November, Pioli reached an agreement with the club to extend his contract until June 2023. In December, his Milan side became the second team in Serie A history to win at least 17 away league games in a single calendar year (after Napoli, 18 in 2017). In the Champions League, the team was knocked out at the group stage, finishing bottom of Group B behind

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in ...

and

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

. On 6 January 2022, Milan beat Roma 3–1, managing to win three consecutive league games against Roma for the first time since 1996. On 5 February, Milan came back to beat archrivals Inter 2–1 in the Derby della Madonnina after trailing by 0–1; it was the first comeback win for Milan in the derby since 2004. On 13 February after defeating

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s ...

, Milan had picked up 55 points in the league: in the three points-per-win era, only in 2003–04 had they earned as many points after 25 games (64). On 6 March, Milan beat Napoli 1–0 at Stadio Diego Maradona, moving to the top of the league table and winning two consecutive away games against Napoli in Serie A for the first time since 1981. Milan had also picked up at least 60 points from the first 28 matchdays of a Serie A season for the first time since 2011–12. On 12 March, Milan defeated Empoli 1–0, reaching 63 points on the top of league table. Seven days later, Milan beat Cagliari 1–0; with that win, Milan had scored at least one goal in 15 consecutive away matches in a single top-flight season for only the second time in their history, also doing so in 1967–68 in Serie A. Pioli's side sealed the

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' ( Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous se ...

on 22 May, the last day of the season, with a 3–0 win against Sassuolo. It was Milan's first league title since 2011, and Pioli's first ever trophy. The team amassed 86 points in total, their best tally since 2005–06. Pioli's tenure at Milan has brought him the praise of several Italian football personalities and pundits, such as Alberto Zaccheroni, Fabio Capello, Claudio Ranieri, Arrigo Sacchi and Adriano Galliani.

2022–23

On 13 August 2022, Milan defeated Udinese 4–2, securing 3 wins in the first match of the

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...

for 3 seasons in a row for the first time since 1996. On 31 October 2022 AC Milan announced that Stefano Pioli extended his contract until 30 June 2025.

Style of management

Pioli usually uses a 4–2–3–1 formation, or a 3–5–2 formation, with full-backs or wing-backs who actively take part in the team's attacking plays. During his time at Lazio, he often used a 4–3–3 formation. Due to his passion for basketball, he attempted to bring strategic elements of the sport into his own tactical approach as a football manager. As a head coach of

, Pioli made use of an archaic WM formation, also known as 3–2–2–3. Although presented officially as a 4–3–3, the formation featured the left full-back, Theo Hernandez, in a more advanced position, whereas the right full-back,

Davide Calabria Davide Calabria (born 6 December 1996) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club AC Milan, whom he captains, and the Italy national team. Club career AC Milan Calabria has been with AC Milan since 2006, playing f ...

’s, attacking presence was significantly limited. Another key feature of this formation was in the center, where two pairs of holding and attacking midfielders formed a square, supporting each other offensively and defensively. However, with the arrival of

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sh ...

in January 2020, Pioli switched Milan's formation to his long favored 4–2–3–1, primarily in order to accommodate for the Swedish ageing yet prolific goalscorer, in which he would play up front without much of a defensive work other than pressing, alternating between the roles of a classical striker, a target forward, and a false 9. The switch of formation also allowed Hakan Çalhanoğlu, an attacking midfielder in a number 10 role, to return to his preferred position as a playmaker behind the main striker, out of which he had been playing for years in various other formations. Ante Rebić and Ismaël Bennacer, the two high-profile new arrivals struggling to fit into the previous coach's system, were given a few more opportunities to prove themselves; as a result, the former got to play in his favorite position as a left winger and quickly topped the club's seasonal goalscoring chart, while the latter formed an efficient double pivot with Franck Kessié, who also significantly improved the quality of his performances.

Personal life

On 14 November 2020, Pioli, alongside his assistant Giacomo Murelli, tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

amid its pandemic in Italy. While in quarantine, Pioli continued to be in charge of the team via Zoom and with the help of another member of his coaching staff, Daniele Bonera. Despite these setbacks, Milan had a 3–1 away victory over Napoli in Serie A and a 1–1 away draw with

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

in Europa League.

Career statistics

Player

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

;Parma *

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1. Before the 1978 ...

: 1983–84 ;Juventus *

: 1985–86 * European Supercup: 1984 *

: 1984–85 * Intercontinental Cup: 1985 ;Fiorentina *

: 1993–94

Manager

;Milan *

: 2021–22 ;Bologna *Allievi Under-17 National Championship: 2000–01

Individual

*Serie A Coach of the Season: 2021–22 *Serie A Coach of the Month:

October 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 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, March 2022, May 2022 * Serie A Coach of the Year: 2021–22

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pioli, Stefano 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Parma Italian footballers Association football defenders Parma Calcio 1913 players Juventus F.C. players Hellas Verona F.C. players ACF Fiorentina players Calcio Padova players U.S. Pistoiese 1921 players U.S. Fiorenzuola 1922 S.S. players Serie C players Serie A players Serie B players UEFA Champions League winning players Italy under-21 international footballers Italian football managers Bologna F.C. 1909 non-playing staff U.S. Salernitana 1919 managers Modena F.C. managers Parma Calcio 1913 managers F.C. Grosseto S.S.D. managers Piacenza Calcio 1919 managers U.S. Sassuolo Calcio managers A.C. ChievoVerona managers Palermo F.C. managers Bologna F.C. 1909 managers S.S. Lazio managers Inter Milan managers ACF Fiorentina managers A.C. Milan managers Serie B managers Serie A managers Footballers from Emilia-Romagna