Cesare Prandelli

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Personal information
Cesare Prandelli
Full name	Claudio Cesare Prandelli
Date of birth	August 19, 1957 (age 49)
Place of birth	Orzinuovi, Italy
Playing position	Manager
Club information
Current club	Fiorentina
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1974-1978 1978-1979 1979-1985 1985-1990	Cremonese Atalanta Juventus Atalanta
Teams managed
1990-1993 1993-1994 1994-1997 1997-1998 1998-2000 2000-2001 2002-2004 2004 2005-	Atalanta (youth coach) Atalanta Atalanta (youth coach) Lecce Verona Venezia Parma AS Roma Fiorentina
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Claudio Cesare Prandelli (born 19 August 1957 in Orzinuovi, province of Brescia) is an Italian football coach, currently of ACF Fiorentina, and former player.

[edit] Playing career

Prandelli, a midfielder, started his playing career for Cremonese in 1974. He then moved to Atalanta in 1978, and then Juventus in 1979. He played six seasons with Juventus, winning the Serie A championship for three times. He returned to Atalanta in 1985, where ended his career in 1990. In total, Prandelli played 197 Serie A matches.

[edit] Coaching career

Prandelli started his managing career as youth team coach for Atalanta. He coached Atalanta's youth squad with excellent results from 1990 to 1997, except for a seven-months parenthesis, from November 1993 to June 1994, in which he served as caretaker for the first team, then relegated to Serie B. After a poor 1997/1998 Serie A campaign as Lecce head coach ended in a sacking on January 1998, Prandelli headed Hellas Verona for two seasons, leading the gialloblu to an immediate promotion to Serie A, then a very good ninth place the next year. He later spent two years in Parma, where he fully reached national glory.

Starting the 2004/2005 season for Serie A's AS Roma, he left the team because of family problems. From season 2005/2006, he is the new coach of Fiorentina, having replaced Dino Zoff. The season was a huge success as Prandelli transformed Fiorentina from relegation strugglers into a team worthy of a Champions' League spot, finishing the season in fourth spot. Unfortunately for Fiorentina and Prandelli however, as a result of the calciopoli match-fixing scandal, Fiorentina along with Juventus were stripped of their Champions League place. Prandelli's team will, though, start the 2006/2007 season in Serie A (albeit with a 15 point deduction) after initially being relegated to Serie B at first instance.

On December 11, 2006, Cesare Prandelli was named the winner of the Golden Bench award for best Italian club coach for his work during the 2005/2006 season.