Serse Cosmi

Serse Cosmi

Personal information
Date of birth	May 5, 1958 (1958-05-05)
Place of birth	Perugia, Italy
Club information
Current club	Lecce
Teams managed
Years	Team
1990–1995	Pontevecchio
1995–2000	Arezzo
2000–2004	Perugia
2004–2005	Genoa
2005–2006	Udinese
2007–2009	Brescia
2009–2010	Livorno
2011	Palermo
2011–	Lecce

Serse Cosmi (born on May 5, 1958 in Perugia) is an Italian football coach and the current head coach of Serie A club Lecce.

Career

Early career

Cosmi was born in 1958 in Ponte San Giovanni, a Perugia frazione. His father, a cycling fan, called him Serse after Fausto Coppi's brother, a cyclist himself, who died following a fall during a sprint. He worked nine years as primary school teacher, and played amateur football during his freetime for local teams such as Deruta, Cannara, Spello and Pontevecchio, in the role of midfielder.

He started a coaching career in the late 1980s in Ellera, as under-18 youth team coach. His debut as first team coach came in 1990, when he was appointed to coach Pontevecchio, a small amateur team from his native town of Ponte San Giovanni. Cosmi brought it on from the Prima Categoria (4th level of amateur leagues in Italy) to Serie D (the top one) in just five years. Successively, he joined Arezzo, which he led from Serie D to Serie C1 in five extremely positive years.

Perugia

After being noted by Luciano Gaucci, in 2000 Cosmi was surprisingly appointed head coach of Perugia, in the Serie A. He guided the team for four consecutive years, winning a UEFA Intertoto Cup, showing valid coaching abilities and launching several players, including 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Marco Materazzi (who reached a career high of 12 goals in a single season under Cosmi's tenure), then-unknown Japanese Hidetoshi Nakata, Fabrizio Miccoli, Fabio Grosso and Fabio Liverani. Cosmi's period at Perugia would last four years, during which he led the fringe Umbrian club to victory in the 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup.

Genoa and Udinese

In 2004 Cosmi left Perugia, after the team went relegated at the end of the season, and joined Genoa of Serie B, with the clear goal to bring the rossoblu back to Serie A.

At the end of the 2004–05 season, Cosmi managed to win the league and guide his team to Serie A, but he successively left because of discords with club chairman Enrico Preziosi, before the relegation of Genoa itself to Serie C1 because of match frauds.

After his short, but successful, experience with Genoa, Cosmi was signed as new coach of Udinese, in order to replace Luciano Spalletti, who gained the qualification to the preliminary rounds of Champions' League the previous season. But it was Cosmi who led the team on the European competition, defeating Sporting Clube de Portugal in a two-tier qualifying round.

With his trademark cap and his little goatee beard, Serse Cosmi is one of Italian football’s most recognisable figures. His touchline energy, and excitable gestures make him a popular butt of jokes by Italian comedians, too. His provincial accent is often impenetrable for those unfamiliar with the brogue of Perugia. Cosmi is an eccentric goblin of a man, but a wily coach who is greatly liked by fans.

 The National

However, after a disappointing series of results, including elimination in Champions League and results in Serie A much below the expected results, Cosmi was finally fired on February 10, 2006.

Brescia and Livorno

On February 28, 2007 he was appointed head coach of Serie B club Brescia. On his very first match after replacing Mario Somma, Cosmi led Brescia to an astonishing 3–1 result against Serie B leaders Juventus. He was fired on May 2009 due to poor result to make room for new boss Alberto Cavasin.

On October 20, 2009 Cosmi made a Serie A comeback as new head coach of bottom-placed relegation battlers Livorno. In his first game in charge, he guided Livorno to a surprising 1–0 away win against AS Roma, which was immediately followed by a second consecutive 1–0 win, against Atalanta, only three days later.

Despite fairly good results at the helm of Livorno, Cosmi resigned from his coaching post on January 24, 2010, in the wake of a 2–0 home loss to fourth-placed Napoli due to disagreements with club chairman Aldo Spinelli. Two days later, on January 26, Cosmi and Spinelli met each other in attempt to clarify each other, also following the supporter fanbase's criticism of the way Spinelli handled the issue. Following the meeting, both parties agreed that the head coach's resignation offer would have been rejected and Cosmi would return at Livorno with immediate effect. This however lasted only a few more weeks, and Cosmi was dismissed later on April following a string of negative results that left Livorno down at the bottom of the table.

Palermo

After more than a year without a job, Cosmi returned into management on 28 February 2011, taking over coaching duties at Palermo as a replacement for Delio Rossi, who was dismissed from the Sicilian club following a record 0–7 home defeat to Udinese. At Palermo, Cosmi reunited with former players Fabrizio Miccoli and Fabio Liverani, as well as ex-player and team staff member Giovanni Tedesco.

After three losses and one victory against A.C Milan, Serse Cosmi was released by club president Zamparini after a disappointing 4-0 loss to Catania.

Lecce

On 4 December 2011 Cosmi was unveiled as new head coach of bottom-placed Serie A side Lecce, replacing Eusebio Di Francesco.

Trivia

Cosmi is widely popular in Italy for his excitable behaviour during matches. He is also famous for always wearing a baseball cap (usually that of his team, but often with just his signature printed on it). Together with Carlo Mazzone, he is considered one of the most passionate coaches in Italian football, and also became subject of a satirical imitation from comedian Maurizio Crozza.

External links

• Official website