luciano spalletti (italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃaːno spalˈletti]; born 7 march 1959) is an italian football manager and a former player.he most recently managed italian serie a club napoli, with whom he guided to win serie a in 2022–23.despite relatively old age for a professional debut, he played for several serie c teams such as entella, spezia, viareggio and empoli.after nearly a decade of lower-tier football in italy, he retired in 1993 and remained at empoli as a coach.he led the tuscan side to consecutive promotions from serie c1 to the top-flight serie a. spalletti then coached sampdoria from july 1998 to june 1999, and venezia from july to october 1999.spalletti had two spells as head coach at udinese.the first was between march 2001 and june 2001, the second between july 2002 and june 2005.there was a period at ancona in between spells.it was at udinese where he really began to make an impact as a manager.during the 2004–05 season, spalletti guided udinese to a sensational fourth-placed finish in serie a, exceeding expectations and securing a spot in the uefa champions league.spalletti became coach of roma in june 2005.the capital side had come off a disappointing season, in which four different coaches had spells in charge of the club.spalletti was offered the task of attempting to bring order to this chaotic side.after an uninspiring first half of the 2005–06 season, he changed the team's tactics to suit a more offensive playing style, rather than a defensive-minded system.spalletti's favoured formation was the 4–2–3–1 system, which used four defenders, two defensive midfielders, two wingers (both sides of the 3), one attacking midfielder, and one striker francesco totti, who typically functioned also as an attacking midfielder in previous seasons.as such, the team played without any real striker, as totti occupied what later came to be described as a false-9 role.this system proved effective for roma upon its introduction during the 2005–06 season, as on 26 february 2006, roma broke the serie a record for most consecutive wins with a 2–0 victory over lazio, following an 11-match winning streak.as a result, roma climbed from 15th place to 5th place in the table.however, by the end of the season, roma failed to reach fourth place, therefore failing to qualify for the champions league.spalletti did manage to help roma reach the 2006 coppa italia final, but ultimately lost out on the title to inter milan.nonetheless, as a result of the 2006 serie a match-fixing scandal, roma qualified for the 2006–07 uefa champions league, as league champions juventus were relegated, while fiorentina and milan both received point deductions for their involvement.at the end of 2006, spalletti was elected serie a coach of the year and, in the following months, led roma until the champions league quarter-final after a 2–0 victory over lyon at the stade gerland in the first knockout round.the team, however, succeeded in becoming the first team to defeat roberto mancini's inter milan in all competitions that year, emerging with a 1–3 result at the san siro, a match that the nerazzurri had to win to mathematically claim the 2007 scudetto against the only credible rival they had in the championship.roma would also win the 2007 coppa italia final against inter, with an aggregate result of 7–4; a resounding 6–2 in the first leg in rome and followed by a narrow 2–1 defeat in milan.it was the first important trophy in spalletti's career, who only had won a coppa italia di serie c with empoli.but he was yet to add another piece of silverware to his cabinet, as roma would again defeat inter 0–1 in milan in the opening fixture of the 2007–08 season to steal their supercoppa italiana crown.in the 2007–08 champions league first knockout round, spalletti's roma team became the first italian team to defeat real madrid over two legs (2–1 in both ties in rome and madrid) and consequently also became the first european side to record two victories over real madrid in their santiago bernabéu home ground.
luciano spalletti | club | empoli fc <tsp> as roma | manager | luciano spalletti <tsp> luciano spalletti | club | virtus entella
spalletti became coach of roma in june 2005.spalletti did manage to help roma reach the 2006 coppa italia final, but ultimately lost out on the title to inter milan.at the end of 2006, spalletti was elected serie a coach of the year and, in the following months, led roma until the champions league quarter-final after a 2–0 victory over lyon at the stade gerland in the first knockout round.it was the first important trophy in spalletti's career, who only had won a coppa italia di serie c with empoli.but he was yet to add another piece of silverware to his cabinet, as roma would again defeat inter 0–1 in milan in the opening fixture of the 2007–08 season to steal their supercoppa italiana crown.in the 2007–08 champions league first knockout round, spalletti's roma team became the first italian team to defeat real madrid over two legs (2–1 in both ties in rome and madrid) and consequently also became the first european side to record two victories over real madrid in their santiago bernabéu home ground.