Attilio Lombardo

Attilio Lombardo

Personal information
Date of birth	January 6, 1966 (1966-01-06)
Place of birth	Santa Maria la Fossa, Italy
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Right winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1983–1985	Pergocrema	38	(9)
1985–1989	Cremonese	141	(17)
1989–1995	Sampdoria	201	(34)
1995–1997	Juventus	35	(2)
1997–1999	Crystal Palace	43	(8)
1999–2001	Lazio	33	(2)
2001–2002	Sampdoria	34	(4)
National team‡
1990–1997	Italy	19	(3)
Teams managed
1998	Crystal Palace (player/manager)
2002–2006	Sampdoria (youth team)
2006–2007	FC Chiasso
2008	Castelnuovo
2008–2009	Legnano
2009	Spezia
2010–	Manchester City (coach/scout)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 29, 2006. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of June 29, 2006

Attilio Lombardo (born 6 January 1966 in Santa Maria la Fossa, in the Province of Caserta) is a retired football player turned manager.

Career

Playing

Lombardo started his career at Pergocrema, in Italy's Serie C2, in 1983, before moving up to Serie B side Cremonese, in 1985, where he made a name for himself, as a more-than-capable right sided winger.

In 1989, he got his first taste of Serie A football, with Sampdoria. Playing alongside such players as Gianluca Vialli, Roberto Mancini, Pietro Vierchowod, Gianluca Pagliuca, and under manager Vujadin Boskov, Lombardo won several domestic trophies, picking up medals for the Coppa Italia (1989), the Cup Winners' Cup (1990), the Supercoppa Italiana (1991), and a second Coppa Italia win (1994). He also played in the Sampdoria side that reached and lost the European Cup Final to Barcelona in 1992.

In 1995, Lombardo made a move to champions Juventus. Unfortunately, Lombardo had problems with injuries during his two-year spell, but still picked up winner's medals for the UEFA Champions League (1996), the Intercontinental Cup (1996), and the European Super Cup (1996).

In 1997, Lombardo was on the move again, joining Premiership new-boys Crystal Palace. Given that this was a far smaller club than Juve, he instantly became the star-player, and scored on his debut at Everton. In early 1998, Mark Goldberg assumed control of the club, and manager Steve Coppell moved to the Director of Football post. Lombardo, along with Swedish international Tomas Brolin as an interpreter, was appointed as caretaker player-manager, for the rest of the season.

Lombardo's season was curtailed by injury whilst with the Italian national squad in November (a recall came his way due to sparkling form with the Londoners). At the time of the injury Palace were 10th in the table, but by the time he came back to the first team, in April, they were bottom of the league. Palace were subsequently relegated to the First Division (now The Championship), even though Lombardo's return lead them to their only two home league wins of the season. Lombardo who was popular with the Palace's supporters but in reality Lombardo's injuries meant that he struggled to produce his very best form.

Lombardo decided to stay following relegation as Palace started poorly under new manager Terry Venables. A severe financial crisis and a need to cut Palace's wage bill resulted in Lombardo leaving in January 1999 to join a S S Lazio team managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson At Lazio, he resumed his streak of domestic and European cup competition victories, gaining second medals for the Cup Winners Cup (1999), Serie A (2000), the Supercoppa Italiana (2000), the Coppa Italia (2000), and the European Super Cup (1999).

In January 2001, Lombardo left Lazio, to re-join Sampdoria, where he would finish his career and go into coaching at the youth level.

During his career, Lombardo gained 19 caps for the Italian national side, between 1990 and 1997, but injury and competition meant he was rarely a regular.

In 2005, Lombardo was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, despite having only made 49 appearances for the Eagles (far fewer than any of the other ten players, showing how highly Palace fans held The Bald Eagle).

Managing career

Following his retirement from active football, he stayed at Sampdoria until June 2006 as youth team manager.

In 2006, he was appointed manager of Swiss side FC Chiasso. He resigned in May 2007, citing lack of motivation.

In April 2008, he was appointed at the helm of Tuscan Serie C2 club Castelnuovo. He stayed at the club for the remainder of the season, leading the small Tuscan club to escape relegation through playoffs. He then was in charge of Lega Pro Prima Divisione club Legnano for the 2008–09 season, but did not manage to save his side from relegation.

Lombardo was appointed in July 2009 as new head coach of Spezia in the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione, but unexpectedly resigned later on October despite his team being in third place in the league table.

In July 2010 he joined the coaching staff at Manchester City, linking up again with Roberto Mancini.

International goals

Scores and results list Italy's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	22 December 1990	Tsirion Stadium, Limassol	Cyprus	3–0	4–0	Euro 1992 qualifying
2.	21 December 1994	Stadio Adriatico, Pescara	Turkey	2–0	3–1	Friendly
3.	29 March 1995	Republican Stadium, Kiev	Ukraine	1–0	2–0	Euro 1996 qualifying