Luigi Delneri

Born in Aquileia, Udine, Delneri made his professional debut as a player at the age of 16 for SPAL, Ferrara's football team, for which he had worked as a storer. After playing for Foggia and Novara, he moved to Udinese, with whom he gained promotion to Serie A, Italy's top division. He was later traded to Sampdoria and then to Vicenza, Siena, Pro Gorizia and Opitergina, an amateur team from Oderzo, where he ended his playing career at 34.

As a manager, Delneri is known for using a spectacular, offensive-minded style of football, which is heavily influenced by Arrigo Sacchi's tactics at Milan, as well as Dutch total football. His teams are known for their work-rate, strength, heavy running, and aggressive use of pressing when defending off the ball, while they are known for their movement off the ball, ability to change positions, and make overlapping runs when attacking. A tactically intelligent manager, his preferred formation is the 4–4–2, which relies on a high defensive line, although he has also been known to adopt other systems which better suit the characteristics of his players, including the 4–3–3.

Early career / Chievo

After his retirement as a player, Delneri stayed at Oderzo, appointed by chairman Ettore Setten (now owner of Treviso) as head coach. In 1986, he signed for Serie D team Pro Gorizia. He then coached Partinicaudace, a minor Sicilian Serie D team, in 1989, Teramo, Ravenna, Novara and Nocerina of Serie C2; with this last team he won the league and promotion to Serie C1. He then moved to Ternana of Serie C2, guiding it to Serie B after two consecutive promotions. In 1998, after his second consecutive promotion, Delneri was signed by Serie A's Empoli, but was fired before starting the championship and was subsequently recalled by his former team, Ternana, in Serie B. In 2000, Delneri signed with Chievo of Serie B, a team representing a small quarter of the city of Verona. It was the beginning of the so-called "Chievo miracle" in which the team was promoted for the first time to Serie A, where they topped the league for the first half of the season and then qualified for the UEFA Cup by coming 5th.

Porto, Roma and Palermo

In June 2004, Delneri signed a three-year contract to succeed José Mourinho at UEFA Champions League holders Porto. He was sacked on 7 August, without even managing a competitive game, allegedly for missing training sessions. Delneri became Roma's third manager of the season in October 2004, after Cesare Prandelli and Rudi Völler. His team failed to advance from their Champions League group, and he dropped young forward…

Coach

Individual Serie A Coach of the Year (1): 2001–02 Panchina d'Oro (1): 2001–02