cup specialist, Mancini has reached at least a semi-final of a major national cup competition in every season he has been a manager, from 2002 to 2014. He holds a number of records, including most consecutive Coppa Italia finals from 2004 to 2008, with Lazio once in 2004 and with Inter Milan in the following four seasons. Early life Mancini was born in the small town of Iesi, Marche, on 27 November 1964, but then moved onto the mountain town of Roccadaspide and was raised by Aldo and Marianna Mancini along with his younger sister Stephanie. He had served as an altar boy in his youth. Club career Sampdoria Mancini debuted in Serie A for Bologna in 1981. The following year, he was bought by Sampdoria, for £2.2 million, whom he played for until 1997. With Sampdoria, he formed a dynamic strike partnership with Gianluca Vialli under manager Vujadin Boškov, which earned the pair the nickname The Goal Twins ("I Gemelli del Gol", in Italian). Together, they helped the club to its only league title in 1991, four Coppa Italias and a Cup Winners' Cup in 1990. He also appeared in the final of the 1991–92 European Cup against Barcelona. At 27, Mancini sat on the interview panel that selected Sven-Göran Eriksson as manager. Mancini often delivered the team-talk for Sampdoria. He attended board meetings and had a say in transfer business. In David Platt's 1995 autobiography, Achieving the Goal, he described the day he met Sampdoria in Genoa while playing for Bari and, lining up in the tunnel, became aware that Mancini was looking his way. Platt wrote: "I thought nothing of it until he asked me, very matter-of-factly, if I was staying at Bari. Outright he asked if I wanted to join Sampdoria. Mancini had been at the club years and was almost a son to the president, Paolo Mantovani." Mancini kept in touch when Platt moved to Juventus and eventually helped bring him to Sampdoria. At that stage, Mancini had established himself as the most powerful voice in the Blucerchiati dressing room. As a teenager at Sampdoria, Mancini was not someone who liked his authority being questioned. After Trevor Francis signed from Manchester City in 1982, aggrieved that his place was under threat, the 18-year-old Mancini ended up picking a fight with 28-year-old Francis on the training ground. A similar incident occurred with Liam Brady, who was