 After three years as youth coach for Modena and Spal, Colomba took his first head coaching job in 1993, at the helm of Olbia of Serie C2.After an impressive season with Novara one year later, in 1995 Colomba was called to coach Salernitana, where he narrowly missed immediate promotion to Serie A; he was fired one year later, because of poor results.In 1997, Colomba signed for Reggina of Serie B, where he obtained a seventh place.