Giovanni Trapattoni

Giovanni Trapattoni

Personal information
Position(s)	Defender (retired)
Team information
Current team	Red Bull Salzburg (manager)

Giovanni Trapattoni (born March 17, 1939) is an Italian football coach, considered the most successful club coach in the history of that country , and former player. He is the manager of Red Bull Salzburg, but will leave them in May 2008 to take over the Republic of Ireland national team. He is a former coach of the Italian national team.

Player

Trapattoni was born in Cusano Milanino on March 17, 1939, in the province of Milan. He had a successful career as a player with AC Milan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Playing primarily as a defender and defensive midfielder with the goal to pass the ball to more creative players such as Giovanni Lodetti and Gianni Rivera, he played also for the Italian team, mostly as centre back with notable marking skills. After taking a break from the Italian giants, he thought he could settle with a mid-table team for one last season instead of being at one club all his life. This is when he moved to Varese and, after a successful season with them, he then retired from professional football and took a job as a manager two years later.

Coach

Trapattoni began coaching at A.C. Milan as a youth team coach before becoming caretaker coach. He was appointed first team coach in 1975. In 1976, he moved on to Juventus and, ten years later in 1986, he went to Inter Milan, being very successful with both sides. He returned to Juventus in 1991 before taking his first job outside Italy, as coach of FC Bayern Munich in 1994, and then from 1996 to 1998. He is well remembered by German fans for an emotional outburst in broken German during a press conference on 10 March, 1998 ("Was erlaube Strunz?"..."Ich habe fertig!" − roughly What dare Strunz? … I have through) where he criticized the team's attitude ("Diese Spieler waren schwach wie eine Flasche leer!" − roughly Those player were weak like a bottle empty). He also coached Cagliari (1995) and Fiorentina (1998 to 2000, leading them to a UEFA Champions League place).

(In Italian language Strunz means as stronzo,jerk, and this scream was very diffused in Italy in those years)

In July 2000 Trapattoni took charge of the Italian national team after the resignation of Dino Zoff. He led the team to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In that tournament, after winning its first match against Ecuador, Italy's form dropped and they controversially lost to Croatia. They almost lost to Mexico, with Alessandro Del Piero scoring a late equalizer. In the second round, Italy lost to South Korea, in a game that is remembered as being one of the biggest and most controversial upsets in FIFA World Cup history, due to the arbitration by Byron Moreno.

At the 2004 European Championship, Italy once again failed to impress, playing with poor defensive tactics. They drew with both Denmark and Sweden, leading to an unexpected early exit. Somewhat controversially, Sweden and Denmark drew 2-2 in their final group game, both teams knowing that a high scoring draw would eliminate Italy no matter what score the Italians achieved in their final game against Bulgaria.

On 25 June 2004, Marcello Lippi was named as Trapattoni's successor, and took over once Trapattoni's contract ran out on 15 July 2004.

On 5 July, Trapattoni was named as new coach of Lisbon club SL Benfica, which he led to win the Portuguese league for the first time in eleven years, and also to the cup final (which Benfica lost to Vitória F.C.). He resigned after the 2005 season, saying he wanted to be closer to his family (in the north of Italy) but returned to management in the German Bundesliga in the summer of 2005, by signing at VfB Stuttgart, with much hype about his appointment. However, during his 20 games at the helm, VfB produced poor results. Denmark international forwards Jon Dahl Tomasson and Jesper Grønkjær openly criticized their coach, claiming he was afraid to attack. Trapattoni responded by dropping both players to the bench. With the atmosphere in the team worsening, he was sacked after just seven months, on 9 February 2006, reportedly for "not fulfilling the ambitions of the club". He was replaced as manager by Armin Veh.

In May 2006, FC Red Bull Salzburg announced it had signed Trapattoni as its new Director of Football, along with one of his former players, Lothar Matthäus, as coach. Trapattoni initially cast doubt on this report, claiming he had not signed any contract. But three days later, both he and Matthäus signed and made their hirings official. After their successful season of 2006/07, the club's board of directors unanimously decided to dismiss Matthäus, making Thorsten Fink Trappatoni's new assistant.

Over a career spanning three decades, Trapattoni has won ten league titles, a European Cup, a Cup Winners' Cup, three UEFA Cups, the Super Cup, four national cups (including two Italian Cups).

On 11 February 2008, Trapattoni "agreed in principle" to take over the Irish manager's job. He will finish the season with Red Bull Salzburg before taking up the Irish position on 1 May. Former Ireland midfielder Liam Brady is expected to be part of the Italian's backroom staff, while Marco Tardelli has been confirmed as Trapattoni's assistant manager. Trapattoni signed Brady back in 1980 for Juventus from Arsenal for just over £500,000.

Red Bull Salzburg confirmed, on 13 February 2008, that at the end of the 2007/2008 season, Trapattoni would be leaving the club to take over as the Republic of Ireland manager. [1]

In a press conference, the Football Association of Ireland confirmed that Mr Trapattoni's first game in charge will be the upcoming friendly against Serbia on May 24th 2008

Honours

Manager

• AC Milan
  • Coppa Italia:
    • Runner-up: 1974–75
• Juventus
  • Serie A: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986
    • Runners-up: 1980, 1983, 1992, 1994
  • Coppa Italia: 1979, 1983
    • Runners-up: 1992
  • European Cup: 1985
    • Runners-up: 1983
  • Cup Winners' Cup: 1984
  • UEFA Cup : 1977, 1993
  • European Super Cup: 1984
  • Intercontinental Cup: 1985
• Internazionale
  • Serie A : 1988–89
  • UEFA Cup: 1990–91
• FC Bayern Munich
  • Bundesliga: 1996–97
    • Runners-up: 1997–98
  • German Cup: 1997–98
• AC Fiorentina
  • Coppa Italia
    • Runners-up: 1998–99
• SL Benfica
  • SuperLiga: 2004–05
  • Taça de Portugal
    • Runners-up: 2004–05.
• FC Red Bull Salzburg
  • T-Mobile Bundesliga: 2006–07

See also

• List of European Cup and Champions League winning managers
• List of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winning managers
• List of UEFA Cup winning managers

External links

• Trapattoni.de Giovanni Trapattoni Website
• [2] First report of outcome of search for Ireland Manager
• [3] A real mad Trapattoni about his Bayern München players, 10 March 1998.