Edoardo Reja

Edy Reja
Personal information
Full name Edoardo Reja
Date of birth 10 October 1945 (1945-10-10) (age 66)
Place of birth Lucinico, Gorizia, Italy
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current club Lazio (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1963–1968 SPAL 70 (2)
1968–1973 Palermo 124 (1)
1973–1975 Alessandria 76 (1)
Teams managed
1979–1980 Molinella
1980–1981 Monselice
1981–1982 Pordenone
1982–1983 Monselice
1983–1984 Pro Gorizia
1984–1985 Treviso
1985–1986 Mestre
1986–1987 Varese
1987–1989 Pescara (youth team)
1989–1990 Pescara
1990–1992 Cosenza
1992–1993 Verona
1993–1994 Bologna
1994–1995 Lecce
1995–1997 Brescia
1997–1998 Torino
1998–2001 Vicenza
2001–2002 Genoa
2003 Catania
2003–2004 Cagliari
2005–2009 Napoli
2009–2010 Hajduk Split
2010– Lazio
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Edoardo "Edy" Reja (born on 10 October 1945 in Lucinico, Gorizia) is an Italian football coach and former player, currently managing Lazio in the Italian Serie A. Born in Italy to Slovenian parents, Reja speaks Slovene and Italian.[1][2] He is also fluent in Friulan.[2]

Contents

Career

Player

Reja started his career with the youth team of SPAL, playing in midfield alongside lifelong friend Fabio Capello. Together, they helped the team to the 1963–64 Italian Youth Championship. In 1965–66, Reja joined Capello in Serie A with the first team and also the Italian Under 23 side. Reja played for two more teams, U.S. Città di Palermo and Alessandria in a long career that lasted until 1975, playing a total of 124 Serie A matches.[3]

Coach

Early career

Reja started his coaching career in 1979 serving as boss of Serie D team Molinella. Next year he then coached Monselice of Serie C2. In 1989 he coached his first Serie B team, Pescara, of which he was previously the youth squad boss. He successively gained good successes in the same league with Cosenza, Lecce and Brescia, where he won the championship; however, he opted to give up the opportunity to coach Brescia in Serie A, preferring to accept an offer from Torino, another Serie B team, where he then missed promotion being defeated on the promotion playoffs to Perugia after penalty shootouts.

Serie A debut at Vicenza, Genoa, Catania and Cagliari

During the 1998–1999 season, he was appointed coach of Serie A club Vicenza, thus making his debut in a top division team, but was unable to save the team from relegation. Next year he remained at Vicenza and led his team back to Serie A, but promptly relegated one more time on 2001. In 2001–2002, he replaced Franco Scoglio at the helm of Genoa (Serie B), but to be fired himself only three months later. On 2002–2003, he was appointed in the mid-season by Catania boss Luciano Gaucci to replace John Toshack. On November 2003, he replaced Giampiero Ventura at Cagliari and guided the rossoblu to second place in the Serie B and promotion to Serie A, but was not confirmed.

Napoli

From January 2005, he is Napoli's boss, appointed at Giampiero Ventura's place (who was curiously replaced by Reja the previous year in Cagliari). He led Napoli to win Serie C1 and obtaining promotion to Serie B on 2006, and promptly guided his team to a second consecutive promotion to Serie A in 2007, which meant the Serie A comeback for Napoli since 2001. In his first Serie A campaign with Napoli, Reja guided the azzurri to a 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup spot, also defeating Inter in the first of their only three losses in the whole league.

He was confirmed at the helm of Napoli for the 2008–09 season. In the season start, Napoli were defeated by S.L. Benfica in the first round of the UEFA Cup, but managed to rise up to first place in the Serie A table also thanks to impressive wins against Fiorentina and Juventus, easily increasing fans' interest and support for the Neapolitan side. However, results quickly deteriorated in the second half of the season, with Napoli losing contact with the European Cup spots, with Reja being ultimately sacked on 10 March 2009 after a 0–2 home loss to S.S. Lazio on Week 27, closing abruptly a five-year spell with the azzurri. He was replaced by former Italian team boss Roberto Donadoni.[4]

Lazio

After a short spell as head coach of Croatian side Hajduk Split from August 2009 to February 2010, Reja opted to quit his job in Split in order to become new head coach of Lazio.[5] He was unveiled as new Lazio boss the following day, replacing Davide Ballardini at the helm of the Rome club.[6] He turned the fortunes of a club in dismay, guiding it out of the relegation zone and into a mid-table finish in the season.

The 2010–11 season for Lazio started in an astonishing way, with the team surprisingly heading Serie A with a four-point advantage to runners-up Inter after nine games, thanks to Reja's abilities in relaunching players such as Mauro Zárate, Cristian Ledesma and Stefano Mauri, as well as introducing new key signings such as Brazilian international Hernanes.

Personal

Reja was born in the village of Lucinico (Slovene: Ločnik) near the border between Italy and Slovenia. He was born into a Slovenian family and is a member of the Slovene minority in Italy.[7][8][9] He is fluent in Slovene, Italian and Friulan.[1][2]

Married to Livia in 1969, he met his wife while rooming with Fabio Capello in Ferrara. Livia was close friends with Capello's future wife Laura but the romance only started when he discovered the guy he assumed was her boyfriend was actually her twin brother.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b "Video: Reja predstavljen na Poljudu: Menadžeri mi neće sastavljati momčad" (in Croatian). nacional.hr. http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/65112/video-reja-predstavljen-na-poljudu-menadzeri-mi-nece-sastavljati-momcad. Retrieved 24 January 2011. 
  2. ^ a b c "Capello: Pri Edyju Reji se govori slovensko" (in Slovene). delo.si. http://www.delo.si/clanek/124016. Retrieved 24 January 2011. 
  3. ^ "I friulani più conosciuti" (in Italian). Totalfootball. http://www.totalfootball.org/ita/home/page.asp?sid=145&mid=2&PageId=2254. Retrieved 2009-01-18. 
  4. ^ "Roberto Donadoni nuovo tecnico azzurro" (in Italian). SSC Napoli. 10 March 2009. http://www.sscnapoli.it/client/render.aspx?root=707&fwd=2367&content=0. Retrieved 10 March 2009. 
  5. ^ "Reja: Vratit ću Hajduk gdje mu je mjesto!" (in Croatian). HNK Hajduk. 9 February 2010. http://www.hajduk.hr/?otvori=vijest&vijest=182. Retrieved 10 February 2010. 
  6. ^ "Calcio, Lazio: esonerato Ballardini, squadra a Reja" (in Italian). Reuters Italia. 10 February 2010. http://it.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idITMIE61909D20100210. Retrieved 10 February 2010. 
  7. ^ "La Slovenia cerca Reja come c.t" (in Italian). gazzetta.it. http://archiviostorico.gazzetta.it/2008/dicembre/04/Slovenia_cerca_Reja_come__ga_10_081204023.shtml. Retrieved 24 January 2011. 
  8. ^ "Furlanija zakladnica najboljših trenerjev" (in Slovene). rtvslo.si. http://www.rtvslo.si/sport/nogomet/furlanija-zakladnica-najboljsih-trenerjev/121164. Retrieved 24 January 2011. 
  9. ^ "Trener Hajduka: Nisam Isus, ne očekujte čuda" (in Croatian). tportal.hr. http://www.tportal.hr/sport/TcomPrvaHNL/32350/Trener-Hajduka-Nisam-Isusc-ne-ocekujte-cuda.html. Retrieved 24 January 2011. 
  10. ^ Capello: Portrait of A Winner. Gabrielle Marcotti
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