Luciano Spalletti

At 65 years old, Luciano Spalletti has this physical status:

Playing career

Spalletti, a native of Certaldo, Florence, began his career as a semi-professional footballer in his mid-20s. Despite being young on his first appearance for a professional debut, he's been active with many Serie C clubs, including Entella, Spezia, Viareggio, and Empoli. He retired in 1993 and spent almost a decade in Italy as a coach and remained at Empoli as a coach.

Coaching career

Spalletti's early career in management led him to Empoli, where he was head coach from July 1993 to June 1998. Spalletti led the Tuscan side to consecutive promotions from Serie C1 to top-flight Serie A. Spalletti coached Sampdoria from July 1998 to June 1999, and Venezia from July 1999 to October 1999.

Spalletti was head coach at Udinese for two years. The first was between March 2001 and June 2001, the second between July 2002 and June 2005. Ancona was during a spell between spells.

It was at Udinese that he first began to make a name for himself as a boss. Spalletti led Udinese to a fantastic fourth-place finish in Serie A during the 2004–05 season, raising hopes and securing a spot in the UEFA Champions League. Spalletti became Roma's coach in June 2005.

Roma was attracted by such success for a traditionally unexceptional aspect with limited funds. Four different coaches had spells in charge of the capital after a rough season in which four different coaches had spells in charge of the team. Spalletti was given the challenge of bringing order to this tumultuous world. He modified the team's tactics to match a more offensive playing style rather than a defensive-minded approach following an uninspiring first half of the 2005–06 season. Spalletti's most popular formation was the 4–2–3–1 system, which featured four defenders, two defensive midfielders, two wingers, two attacking midfielders, one attacking midfielder, and one attacking midfielder. As a result, the team did not have a true striker on the team as a result of his arrival as Totti occupied what later became known as a false-9 position. Roma's this system was very effective during its debut in 2005–06 season, as Roma thrashed Lazio 2–0, a Serie A record for consecutive victories on Sunday. Roma also risen from 15th place to fifth place in the table as a result. Roma did not finish fourth place by the end of the season, effectively missing out on Champions League eligibility. Spalletti did help Roma qualify for the 2006 Coppa Italia Final, but ultimately lost out on the championship to Inter Milan. Roma did qualify for the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League as a result of the 2006-07 Serie A match-fixing controversy, though Fiorentina and Milan also received point deductions for their participation.

Spalletti was named Serie A Coach of the Year at the end of 2006 and led Roma until the Champions League quarter-finals in the first knockout round after losing by 2–0 over Lyon. The team, on the other hand, won the San Siro match, the Nerazzurrri's first team to defeat Roberto Mancini's Inter Milan in all competitions this year, winning 1–3 by a 1–3 score, their first objective in the championship's history, with the Nerazzurrri attempting to win by 1–3 over the 2007 Scudetto against the team's only legitimate competitor. Roma will also win the 2007 Coppa Italia Final against Inter Interna; a resounding 6–2 win in Rome and a narrow 2–1 loss in Milan. It was the first major trophy in Spalletti's career, and it was the first time he had won a Coppa Italia di Serie C with Empoli. But he wasn't yet to add another piece of silverware to his cabinet, as Roma would defeat Inter 0-1 in Milan in the first match of the 2007–08 season in the first round of the Italiana Supercoppa Italiana crown.

Spalletti's Roma team defeated Real Madrid in the first round of the Champions League in 2007-08, beating them by two legs (2–1 in both ties in Rome and Madrid), and then became the first European team to win two games over Real Madrid in their Santiago Bernabéu home ground. Roma were again barred from the Champions League by eventual winners Manchester United in a repeat of last season's quarter-finals. However, they did win in their defense of Coppa Italia, defeating Inter Scudetto runners Inter in the 2008 Coppa Italia Final — a single match in which Roma defeated Roma 2–1.

Spalletti's 2009–09 season was a tough one for Roma, with only qualifying for the UEFA Europa League in the second half of the competition.

Spalletti's limited squad was further affected by Alberto Aquilani's transfer to Liverpool, which was further weakened by the club's serious financial issues. Roma began the season by participating in two 2009–10 UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds, both winning against Gent (10–2 on aggregate) and Koice (10–4 on aggregate). Spalletti resigned on September 1, 2009, after another poor start in the 2009–10 Serie A season (2–3 to Genoa and 1–3 to Juventus at home).

Spalletti was announced in December 2009 that he would join Zenit Saint Petersburg on a three-year contract, replacing interim coach Anatoli Davydov, with Italian coaches Daniele Baldini, Marco Domenichini, and Alberto Bartali all joining the Russian team. Spalletti's board of directors aspired him to win the Russian Cup, advance to the Champions League group stage for his first year.

Zenit won the Russian Cup on May 16, 2010, defeating Sibir Novosibirsk in the final (having defeated Volga Tver in the quarter-finals and Amkar Perm in the semi-finals). Zenit won 42 points in the 2010 Premier League, beating 12 wins and 4 draws under Spalletti, a new Russian Premier League record for the most points won at that point in the campaign. Spalletti made his first signings in 2010's summer transfer window: forward Aleksandr Bukharov and midfielder Sergei Semak both came from Rubin Kazan, while defenders Aleksandar Lukovi and Bruno Alves arrived from Udinese and Porto respectively. Zenit lost its first match under Spalletti to French side Auxerre on August 25th, losing the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League group stage, despite Zenit's progress to participate in the 2010-11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

Zenit defeated Spartak Nalchik on October 3rd, the first Russian Premier League match to be undefeated since the start of the league season. Zenit suffered its first defeat of the season at the hands of rival club Spartak Moscow on October 27th, just seven matches shy of winning the championship undefeated. Zenit defeated Rostov and a pair of games before the season's conclusion on November 14th, the first of Spalletti's coaching career.

In addition, Zenit advanced past the Europa League group stage to the first round of 16 stage, defeating Swiss club Young Boys. Zenit defeated CSKA Moscow in the Russian Super Cup on March 6, 2011, winning Spalletti his third Russian trophy. Zenit lost in the Europa League quarter-finals to Twente 2–3 on aggregate on March 17, 2011.

Zenit joined Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, and APOEL in Group G of the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League. Zenit finished second place in the group's first appearance in club history on December 6th, 2011 and qualified for the Champions League's spring knockout phase. Zenit won 3–2 at home against Benfica on the first leg, with two goals from Roman Shirokov and one from Sergei Semak. Zenit lost 2–0 and was booted from the competition in the second leg. Spalletti signed a three-and-a-half-year contract extension on February 9th, extending his stay at Zenit until 2015. After defeating Dynamo Moscow in April 2012, Zenit claimed their second-straight Premier League championship.

Spalletti was fired on March 10, 2014, after three trophy-less seasons.

After ex-manager Rudi Garcia was fired due to poor team results, Spalletti was appointed as the head of Roma for his second spell on January 13. Francesco Totti openly chastised Spalletti after returning from injury on February 21. As a result, Totti was disqualified by Spalletti after Roma's 5–0 victory over Palermo, causing a stir among fans and the media. Spalletti began using Totti as an immediate impact replacement, which was a smart call, as Totti regained his form and contributed with four goals and an assist after being off the bench in five straight Serie A matches. Spalletti was able to lead Roma from a mid-table position to a second-place finish in Serie A, clinching the Champions League play-off position.

Roma reported Spalletti had decided to leave the club by mutual consent on May 30th, two days after finishing the 2016–17 season in second place. The team qualified for the Champions League for two seasons in a row during Joe's second season with Roma.

Spalletti was appointed Inter's new boss after a two-year deal was announced on June 9, 2017. This came after he flew to Nanjing, China, to speak with Zhang Jindong, the main owner of Inter.

Spalletti defeated Lyon, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea in a friendly tournament in Singapore on July 29. Spalletti defeated Fiorentina 3–0 at the San Siro on August 20th in his first league match with Inter. He won his second match with Inter against Roma, his former club Roma. 1–3. Inter defeated Chievo Verona 5–0 on December 3rd, taking first place after 12 victories and 3 draws. Inter held their first position after a 0–0 draw against Juventus, effectively ending the first Italian team to remain undefeated after the first 16 weeks.

Inter defeated Lazio 2–3 on May 20, 2018 in their last game of the season, finishing the league in fourth place and qualifying for the first time in six years. The club stayed in August 2018 until 2021, the first year of Spalletti's contract.

On the last day of the season, the club earned a hard-fought UEFA Champions League finish. Spalletti was fired on May 30, 2019, despite rumors of his impending resignation.

Spalletti was announced as Napoli's next head coach on May 29, 2021, after two years of inactivity, replacing Gennaro Gattuso.

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