Luigi Delneri

Luigi "Gigi" Delneri, often incorrectly written as Del Neri (born 23 August 1950) is an Italian football manager, who is currently in charge of Udinese.

Born at Aquileia, Udine, Delneri made his professional debut as player at the age of 16 for SPAL, Ferrara's football team, for which he had worked as 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.

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 at the Serie B level.

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 very first time to Serie A and then even qualified for the UEFA Cup in its first season at the highest level of Italian football after leading Serie A at the end of the winter break.

In the summer of 2004, Delneri was signed by Champions' League holders Porto, but, as with Empoli, he was fired before making his debut. He maintained that he wanted to return to Italy for personal reasons. Signed in October 2004 by Roma to replace Rudi Völler, he in turn left this position in March 2005 after a dismaying series of defeats, which were regarded as only partially the fault of Delneri.

In mid-2005, Delneri accepted the offer of Palermo to coach the Sicilian team, which had qualified for the upcoming 2005–06 UEFA Cup. After a strong beginning, including a surprising 3–2 win against Internazionale and qualification to the UEFA Cup group stages, the team started producing poor results, slowly losing position in the Serie A table. After a 3–1 defeat at home against Siena, Delneri was fired on 28 January 2006.

On 16 October 2006, Delneri returned to coach Chievo, replacing Giuseppe Pillon. Despite a strong start, he did not manage to save his side from relegation, losing a spot in the following season's Serie A with a 2–0 loss to Catania on the final matchday. Following the relegation, Delneri announced he was leaving Chievo. He was announced as new Atalanta boss in June 2007. Delneri spent two successful seasons with Atalanta in which he led the team to 9th and 11th place, which can be seen as a great success since the team fell to 18th place and were demoted to Serie B after his departure.

After two seasons in Bergamo, he left to take over at Sampdoria on 1 June 2009, a team that had a disappointing season in which they finished 13th. He guided Sampdoria to a surprising fourth-place finish in which they beat Internazionale, Milan, Juventus and Roma. As a result of Sampdoria's league position, the club received a spot to the third qualifying round of the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League. Delneri left the blucerchiati the day after his team secured fourth place.

On 19 May 2010, Delneri was appointed as coach of Juventus after he quit as coach of Sampdoria on 17 May 2010. On the day of his appointment, Delneri stated, "I want to build a team with a definite identity, that doesn't change depending on which team it is playing." "We want to return to the level that Juventus has always played throughout its century and recreate a winning mentality. I've won some hard challenges and it isn't easy, but it has allowed me to be considered by a big club," Delneri added. "I know full well that we need a lot of quality to achieve our aims. But we need continuity and if we achieve that we might be able to reach our goals earlier." After a slow start to the new season, the Turin-based side kept their first clean sheet since October in a 4–0 win over Udinese. He guided Juventus to third place in the league before the winter break, though after the new year, Juventus have lost 7 of 11 games. Milan beat Juventus 1–0 in Turin on 5 March, marking a third-straight defeat for Juve which prompted fans to call for his resignation.

At the end of the 2010–11 season, Delneri was sacked by the Juventus board of directors.

On 22 October 2012, Delneri was named new head coach of Genoa in Serie A, succeeding sacked coach Luigi De Canio. On 20 January 2013, however, Delneri was himself sacked following a 0–2 home loss to Catania and a string of bad results for the team, which recorded only two wins in his 13 matches with the club.

On 1 December 2015, Delneri was appointed manager of Hellas Verona, replacing Andrea Mandorlini. He was sacked after the season ended in relegation for the club on 23 May 2016.

As of 22 January 2017

Coach

Individual

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

• "Albo d'Oro" (in Italian). assocalciatori.it. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2016. 
• "Albo "Panchina d'Oro"" (in Italian). Alleniamo.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2016.