Giampaolo Pozzo
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Giampaolo Pozzo (Udine, 21 May 1941) is an Italian businessman. He is currently the owner Italian football team Udinese, Spanish football club Granada and English team Watford.[1]
Giampaolo Pozzo bought Udinese Calcio in July 1986. The team, involved in a betting scandal, was first sent back to Serie B; later, it was penalized by nine points in the Serie A championship in 1986/1987. To save the team, Pozzo bought fine players: Francesco Graziani, Fulvio Collovati and Daniel Bertoni among others. Udinese ended at the last place, and was sent back to Serie B; without the nine-point penalty it would have saved itself.
After the troubled season 1987/1988, in summer 1988 Pozzo engaged Nedo Sonetti as coach of the team with Antonio De Vitis, Giuseppe Minaudo, Angelo Orlando, Settimio Lucci, Antonio Paganin, Zennoni, Giuseppe Catalano, Marco Branca and Claudio Garella as goalkeeper. Udinese came back in Serie A
In 1990, a phone call between Pozzo and the president of S.S. Lazio team just before a match was alleged as prove of illicit deals. Pozzo defended himself, but was forbidden to hold social positions. Since then he has no longer been the President of the Udinese Calcio team that he still owns.
Since 1994/1995, the last year in B league, Udinese became a sort of miracle in Italian Football: the team qualified to eight Uefa Cups, an Intertoto Cup, obtained a third place in the 1997/1998 season (with coach Alberto Zaccheroni) and the fourth place in the 2004/2005 season with Luciano Spalletti. Thus it reached Champions League where it beat the Sporting Lisbon.
Pozzo has discovered young under-paid talents all over the world, who soon became champions: Nestor Sensini, Oliver Bierhoff, Marcio Amoroso, Vincenzo Iaquinta, David Pizarro, Martin Jørgensen, not to mention Sulley Muntari, Fabio Quagliarella, Antonio Di Natale, Felipe, Cristián Zapata, Gökhan Inler and Alexis Sánchez; these players coming from various strong teams made Udinese a model for the entire Italian football.
In season 2007-2008 Pozzo was elected the best president of the Serie A.
After Pallacanestro Amatori Udine, better known as Snaidero Udine was sent back to the minor league, Pozzo helped his friend Edy Snaidero, majority shareholder of the basketball society. Pozzo and some other entrepreneurs from Friuli saved Snaidero which could restart playing from the Lega Basket Serie A2 championship.
In 2009, he bought the Spanish club Granada.[2]
In June 2012, he acquired Watford Football Club from Stanmore businessman Laurence Bassini.[3]
| Owned Football Clubs |
|---|
| Granada |
| Udinese |
| Watford |