Fabio Capello

Fabio Capello ([ˈfaːbjo kaˈpɛllo, -ˈpel-]; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which lasted over 15 years. He won the Coppa Italia with Roma in 1969, though he was most successful with Juventus, winning three Serie A...

Fabio Capello ([ˈfaːbjo kaˈpɛllo, -ˈpel-]; born 18 June 1946) is an Italian former professional football manager and player. As a player, Capello represented SPAL, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which lasted over 15 years. He won the Coppa Italia with Roma in 1969, though he was most successful with Juventus, winning three Serie A titles in 1972, 1973 and 1975. With Milan, he won the Coppa Italia again in 1977 and also won another Serie A in 1979. Capello also played internationally for Italy during his career, amassing 32 caps and scoring 8 goals. In his first five seasons as a manager, Capello won four Serie A titles with Milan, where he also won the 1993–94 UEFA Champions League, defeating Barcelona 4–0 in a memorable final. He then spent a year at Real Madrid, where he won the La Liga title at his first attempt, and in 2001 led Roma to their first league title in 18 years. Capello also won two titles at Juventus (which were later stripped after the Calciopoli scandal), and in 2006 returned to Real Madrid, where he won another La Liga title. Overall, he has won a major league championship in seven (or nine, counting the two revoked titles with Juventus) of his 16 seasons as a coach. He is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. Capello was appointed as manager of the England national team in December 2007. During his time as manager, he was successful in tournament qualification, guiding the team to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where they were knocked out in the second round, and UEFA Euro 2012, where they were knocked out in the quarter-finals under new manager Roy Hodgson. In February 2012, he resigned as manager due to a dispute with The Football Association, before being appointed coach of the Russian national team in July 2012. On 14 July 2015, he was sacked by the Russian Football Union and replaced with Leonid Slutsky. In 2017, he was appointed as the coach of Chinese club Jiangsu Suning, but was sacked the following year, after which he retired from coaching. Club career Capello was signed by Paolo Mazza, the President of SPAL, for the fee of two million lire despite interest from Milan. In his second season in the youth team, he helped the club win the Italian Youth Championship and made his first-team debut in a 3–1 away defeat against Sampdoria in Serie A on 29 March 1964. A talented and tactically intelligent holding midfielder, with a good positional sense, he could read the play well and was strong both in the air and in the tackle, in spite of his lack of notable height and unorthodox physique. He usually operated as a deep-lying playmaker in midfield, however, due to his outstanding technique and vision, which enabled him to orchestrate his team's attacking moves or create chances for teammates, and furthermore was an excellent passer of the ball with both feet. Going forward he was also equally effective, and possessed an eye for goal from midfield, due to his powerful and accurate shot, as well as his ability at penalty kicks, but he lacked pace, and was notorious for not being particularly hard-working. With SPAL, he made four appearances for a struggling side that was relegated from Serie A. After returning to the top division at the first attempt, Capello became a key player in the 1965–66 season, taking penalties and helping them avoid a swift return to Serie B. He was also called up to the Italian under-23 side alongside teammate Edoardo Reja despite still being a teenager. However, injury to his left knee restricted him to just 16 appearances the following season. In 1967, Capello moved to Roma where he became a key player for the club. In his first season, he helped them to first place after eight matches, including scoring the winner in a 1–0 victory over Juventus. A recurrence of the injury to his left knee, however, kept him out for the rest of the season and Roma eventually finished in tenth place, just five points away from relegation. The following season, under new manager Helenio Herrera, a fit Capello scored six goals as Roma finished eighth and won his first major trophy, the Coppa Italia. This qualified Roma to play the Anglo-Italian League Cup, where they played Swindon Town. Capello played in both legs against Swindon, Roma winning 2–1 at home in the first leg but losing 4–0 in the second leg at the County Ground. They also reached the semi-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup, but were knocked out by Polish side Górnik Zabrze after losing the deciding coin toss following three draws. He was then sold to Juventus in 1970. He had a poor start to his time there, as he publicly criticised manager Armando Picchi on the same day it was revealed that Picchi had been diagnosed with cancer. Capello escaped with a fine from the club after Picchi insisted that he not receive a suspension. Capello became an influential figure under new manager Čestmír Vycpálek, despite being only 24, and was assigned the number 10 shirt; he largely decided the team's tactics for the 1971 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final against Leeds United. Capello scored at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino, but Juventus lost the tie on away goals. Juventus went on to win the league title in the 1971–72, 1972–73 and 1974–75 seasons. They also reached the 1973 European Cup final, where they were beaten 1–0 by the dominant "Total Football" approach of Ajax. They missed out on the chance of winning the double after losing to Milan on penalties in the 1973 Coppa Italia final. Reaching the semi-finals of the 1974–75 UEFA Cup, Juventus were surprisingly beaten by Dutch side Twente. Juventus were concerned with Capello's knee injuries, and so traded him to Milan in exchange for Romeo Benetti and 100 million lire in 1976. He missed just two league starts in the 1976–77 season playing under influential manager Nils Liedholm. However, he was limited to just eight appearances in the 1978–79 title-winning season. He played just three games in the 1979–80 season, before finally accepting that he was unable to continue as a professional footballer. International career Capello played 32 times for Italy between 1972 and 1978, scoring 8 goals; he made his international debut on 13 May 1972, in a 2–1 defeat to Belgium. He is particularly remembered for a goal with which Italy beat England 1–0 at Wembley Stadium for the first time in its history (14 November 1973), which he himself regarded as the highlight of his playing career. Capello scored the lone goal for Italy against Poland during the 1974 World Cup, though Italy lost the match 2–1 and failed to qualify for the second round of the competition. He was overlooked for the 1978 World Cup even after having good club form with Milan: the manager at that time, Enzo Bearzot, preferred other defensive-minded midfielders such as Marco Tardelli over the more attacking minded Capello. Style of play Regarded as one of the most influential Italian players of his generation, Capello was a tactically intelligent holding midfielder, with a positional sense and intuition.He usually played in the centre of the pitch, however, where he operated as a deep-lying playmaker in midfield, due to his technique and vision, which enabled him to orchestrate his team's attacking moves or create chances for teammates, and was a passer of the ball with both feet. In spite of his playing role, he was an offensive-minded midfielder. Indeed, going forward he was also equally effective as he was creatively and defensively, and possessed an eye for goal from midfield, due to his powerful and accurate shot, as well as his ability at penalty kicks. His offensive movement and ability to make late runs into the area from behind also made him an offensive threat, but at the same time he lacked pace, and was notorious for not being particularly hard-working. After retirement After several years as a football pundit for Italian TV SPW and a brief spell as caretaker manager of Milan in 1987, Capello became a leading candidate to succeed Arrigo Sacchi as coach of the team, and he was formally appointed as manager of Milan in 1991. Managerial career Early years As a guest of the SFA, Capello began coaching on a three-week visit to Scotland. He worked with Craig Brown and Andy Roxburgh in the early 1980s. Capello coached training sessions with Clyde at Shawfield in Glasgow and took charge of the Scotland youth team training in Paisley. Before going into management, Capello spent the early 1980s coaching the Milan youth teams. Bringing through talent such as Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, he led the under-19s to numerous youth tournament successes. He completed the last of his coaching badges in 1986. He was promoted to first team coach in 1987, and worked as Nils Liedholm's assistant. His first experience as a head coach was leading Milan in the last six games of the 1986–87 season, replacing Liedholm and achieving UEFA Cup qualifications in a play-off with Sampdoria. The following season, however, Silvio Berlusconi hired Arrigo Sacchi as the new Rossoneri manager and Capello stepped aside, but still worked for the club. A student at Coverciano, in 1984 he penned a research article entitled "The Zonal Marking System". While at Coverciano, Capello acted as general manager for a variety of sports, including baseball, ice hockey, volleyball and rugby union. After standing aside as manager, he was sent by Berlusconi on high-level business courses. First spell at Milan Capello replaced Sacchi as Milan manager in June 1991, and was a controversial appointment as he was seen as a Berlusconi "yes-man" compared to the demanding (both on the club's finances and on his players) but highly successful Sacchi. Capello largely retained the players and tactical systems put in place by Sacchi, though he replaced ageing central midfielder Carlo Ancelotti with a young Demetrio Albertini and signed goalkeeper Sebastiano Rossi. Allowing for more creative freedom from his attackers, Milan won the Serie A title undefeated in 1991–92. He spent around £15 million on winger Gianluigi Lentini, breaking the world football transfer record. He also signed Fernando De Napoli, Stefano Eranio, Jean-Pierre Papin, Dejan Savićević and Zvonimir Boban. Already boasting talent such as Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Paolo Maldini and Frank Rijkaard, Capello was one of the first managers to introduce a squad rotation approach. He played Rijkaard and Albertini as deep-lying central midfielders, allowing his wingers more license to attack. Milan dominated the league in the 1992–93 season, defending the Serie A title, and reached the 1993 UEFA Champions League final, losing 1—0 to Marseille. Milan remained unbeaten for 58 league games, between 19 May 1991 and 21 March 1993, which included an entire season in the league, a record in Italian football. They were finally defeated 1–0 by Parma after a goal from Faustino Asprilla. Building for the 1993–94 season, Capello signed Christian Panucci, Brian Laudrup, Florin Răducioiu and Marcel Desailly. Playing the former defender Desailly as a holding midfielder allowed the rest of the midfield to push on and attack. His side lost 3–2 to São Paulo in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup and 2-1 overall to Parma in the 1993 European Super Cup, but defended the Serie A title, the club's third consecutive Scudetto, and won the 1994 Champions League final with a 4–0 victory over Johan Cruyff's Barcelona "Dream Team". Due to injuries endured by several of the club's attacking stars, in particular Van Basten, Milan only scored 36 goals in 34 games in the league that season, but finished with the best defence in Italy, conceding just 15 goals. The club's back four at the time, primarily made up by Mauro Tassotti, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Maldini, is regarded as one of the greatest defences of all time; the club's defensive strength under Capello helped Milan's goalkeeper Rossi achieve th