Antonio Conte

Club career

Lecce

Conte began his career with the youth team of his hometown club Lecce and made his Serie A debut with the first team on 6 April 1986, aged 16, in a 1–1 draw against Pisa. Under manager Carlo Mazzone, he became a fundamental player for the squad. In 1987, he fractured his tibia, risking a career-ending injury. During the 1988–89 season, he was back on the pitch and scored his first Serie A goal on 11 November 1989 in a 3–2 loss to Napoli. He amassed 99 appearances and one goal for Lecce.

Juventus

Conte was signed by Juventus manager Giovanni Trapattoni in 1991 (Conte refers to Trapattoni as being his "second father"), debuting on 17 November 1991 against cross-city rivals Torino. Due to his consistent performances, work-rate, leadership and tenacious playing style, he became an important figure with the club's fans, and was later named the team's captain under Marcello Lippi in 1996, following the departure of the club's previous captain Gianluca Vialli, and before the promotion of Alessandro Del Piero to the role. During the 1998–99 season, when Del Piero suffered a severe knee injury, Conte returned to the captaincy, a position which he maintained until the 2001–02 season. During his Juventus playing career, Conte won five Serie A titles, the 1994–95 Coppa Italia, the 1992–93 UEFA Cup, the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, the 1996 UEFA Super Cup, the 1996 Intercontinental Cup (which he missed…

Arezzo

After retiring from playing, Conte worked as an assistant manager for Siena alongside Luigi De Canio in the 2005–06 season. In July 2006, he was appointed coach of Serie B side Arezzo. After a series of disappointing results, he was sacked on 31 October 2006. On 13 March 2007, Conte was reinstated as Arezzo head coach as his predecessor Maurizio Sarri failed to gain any significant improvement with the club mired in a relegation struggle. He subsequently led the team to five consecutive wins, securing 19 points from 7 matches, which allowed the Tuscan side to close the points gap between them and safety. Despite this turnaround in form, Arezzo was relegated to Serie C1 on the final day of the league season, finishing one point behind Spezia.

Bari

On 27 December 2007, Conte was appointed by Bari to replace Giuseppe Materazzi for the second half of their 2007–08 Serie B campaign. He oversaw a considerable upturn in form, leading the team out of the relegation battle and placing them comfortably mid-table. The following season, 2008–09, Bari were crowned Serie B champions, being promoted to Serie A for the 2009–10 season, Conte's first major honour as a manager. In June 2009, after weeks of rumours linking Conte to the vacant managerial role at Juventus, he agreed in principle for a contract extension to keep him at Bari for the new season. On 23 June, Bari announced they had rescinded the contract with Conte by mutual consent. After Claudio Ranieri…

As a manager, Conte is known for using the 3–5–2 formation (or in certain cases, its more defensive variant, 5–3–2), fielding two wingbacks in lieu of wingers, with two out-and-out strikers backed by an attacking box-to-box midfielder in a three-man midfield, in front of a three-man defensive line. During his time as head coach of Juventus, he won three consecutive Serie A titles using the 3–5–2 formation, which also soon began to be employed by several other Serie A clubs. In his time at Bari, he was noted for his unorthodox 4–2–4 formation, a modification of the classic 4–4–2, in which the outside midfielders act as attacking wingers. Some commentators have also observed that, although Conte's teams are capable of playing a short passing possession game, in which the ball is played out from the back on the ground, they are mainly known for their direct style of attacking play, as well as their ability to utilise long balls and score from counter-attacks with few touches; however, Conte has rejected claims that his teams prefer to sit back and play on the counter-attack. Defensive solidity has been highlighted as a hallmark of his sides, as well as the effective use of high and aggressive pressing in order to put pressure on opponents and win back the ball quickly. Conte's teams have also been described as possessing notable virtues such as pace, athleticism, high work-rates, versatility and tactical intelligence. Conte's work in restoring Juventus to the top of Italian…

Antonio Conte was raised in Lecce with his two brothers by their parents, father Cosimino Conte and mother Ada Briamo. His father was a football coach for local club Juventina Lecce. Conte and his wife Elisabetta have a daughter, Vittoria. The couple had been together for 15 years before marrying in June 2013. Conte has expressed his gratitude to his family for their support during the Scommessopoli match-fixing scandal investigations in 2011–12: "I have a great woman by my side, one who always tries to understand me. As for my daughter, she is the other woman in my life. She is beginning to understand that her dad gets nervous when he does not win [a match]." Conte is bilingual in Italian and English. He is Catholic. On 1 February 2023, Tottenham Hotspur announced Conte would be having surgery that day to remove his gallbladder.