Antonio Conte

This article is about the footballer. For the fencer, see Antonio Conte (fencer).
Antonio Conte
Personal information
Full nameAntonio Conte
Date of birth31 July 1969
Place of birthLecce, Italy
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing positionCentral midfielder
Club information
Current team
Italy (manager)
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1985–1991Lecce89(1)
1991–2004Juventus419(44)
Total508(45)
National team
1994–2000Italy20(2)
Teams managed
2006Arezzo
2007Arezzo
2007–2009Bari
2009–2010Atalanta
2010–2011Siena
2011–2014Juventus
2014–Italy
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Antonio Conte (Italian pronunciation: [anˈtɔnjo ˈkonte]; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian football manager and former player. He is currently the coach of the Italian football national team.[1]

Playing as a midfielder, Conte became one of the most decorated and influential players in the history of Juventus. He stood out due to his tenacity and leadership, captaining the team and winning the UEFA Champions League and 5 Serie A titles, among other honours.[2] He also played for the Italian national team and was a participant at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 UEFA European Championship, where, in both occasions, the Italians finished in second place. Conte was known to be a combative, energetic, and tactically versatile midfielder throughout his career, who could play anywhere in midfield.[3] Conte was mainly known for his accurate tackling and his ability to start attacking plays by switching the defence into attack;[4] he also had a penchant for occasionally scoring spectacular goals, and was good in the air.[5]

As a manager, Conte is known for using the 3-5-2 formation[6][7] (or in certain cases, its more defensive variant, 5-3-2), fielding two pure strikers backed by a "number 10" attacking midfielder; Conte thus successfully resists the trend to use just one striker, prevalent in formations such as 4-2-3-1 that have come to dominate many clubs throughout Europe. In his time at Bari he was noted for his unorthodox 4-2-4 formation, a modification of the classic 4-4-2 in which the outside midfielders act as attacking wingers.

Playing career

Conte began to play football in his hometown, within the U.S. Lecce youth team, before making his Serie A debut with the first squad in 1985. He was signed by Juventus manager Giovanni Trapattoni in 1991 (debuting 17 November 1991 vs. Torino),[8] being later made captain before the promotion of Alessandro Del Piero to this role. During the 1998–1999 season when Del Piero suffered a severe knee injury, Conte returned to the captaincy, which he maintained the until the 2001–02 season.

Conte played for the Italian national team and was a participant at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 UEFA European Championship.[9] He has won all possible top tier titles at club level but has only managed a runners-up medal for the World Cup and Euro Cup. Conte won 5 Serie A titles with Juventus and the 1995-1996 UEFA Champions League. He came very close to winning the top European title again in 3 separate occasions, but the "curse of finals" afflicting Juventus continued, as Juve lost the Champions League finals of 1997, 1998 and 2003.

Coaching career

Arezzo

Conte in 2005.

After having retired as a footballer, Conte worked as an assistant manager for Siena alongside Luigi De Canio in the 2005–06 season. In July 2006 he was appointed coach of Serie B side Arezzo; however, after a series of disappointing results, he was sacked on 31 October 2006.

On 13 March 2007 he was reinstated to the Arezzo head coaching position, as his predecessor failed to gain any significant improvement. In his second time at Arezzo he led the team to five consecutive wins in a row, and 19 points in 7 matches, which allowed the Tuscan side to fill the gap from the last safe spot; his team however did not manage to avoid relegation, and Arezzo dropped into Serie C1 on the final matchday, only one point behind Spezia.

Bari

On 27 December 2007 he was appointed by Bari to replace Giuseppe Materazzi for the second half of their Serie B 2007–08 campaign.[10] He did very well, turning Bari's 2007–08 season around from relegation-threatened to a comfortable midtable position. In the following season, 2008–09, Bari were crowned Serie B champions, being promoted to Serie A for the 2009–10 season.

In June 2009, after weeks of rumours linking Conte to the vacant managerial role at Juventus, he agreed in principle for a contract extension to keep him at Bari for the new season; however, on 23 June Bari announced to have rescinded the contract with Antonio Conte by mutual consent.[11]

After Claudio Ranieri was sacked by Juventus, Conte was named as one of the candidates to become the new coach.[12] However, the "bianconeri" hired Ciro Ferrara as the first team manager, instead. Conte had stated shortly prior that he would like to be the Juventus coach in the future, because he thought he was ready to assume the work.[13]

Atalanta

Conte managing Atalanta in a Serie A match

On 21 September 2009 Atalanta appointed him to replace Angelo Gregucci.[14] After a good start at the helm of the orobici, Atalanta under Conte's reign began struggling by November, leading to protests from local supporters and troubles between Conte himself and the organised ultras of the club.

On 6 January 2010, Conte was repeatedly confronted by Atalanta fans during a home game against Napoli which ended in a 0–2 loss for the nerazzurri; the matchday ended with a police intervention to avoid altercation between Conte and the Atalanta ultras.[15] The next day, Conte tended his resignations to the club, leaving them in 19th place.[16]

Siena

On 9 May 2010 he was announced as new head coach of Siena, with the aim to bring the Tuscan side back to the top flight after relegation to the 2010–11 Serie B.[17] Conte successfully led Siena to promotion for the 2011–12 Serie A season.

Juventus

Conte in 2012

On 22 May 2011 Juventus sporting director, Giuseppe Marotta, announced that Juventus had appointed Conte as their new head coach replacing Luigi Delneri. It was expected that Conte would lead Juventus to their return on top of the Italian and European football scene.[18][19]

On 6 May 2012, Conte led Juventus to its 28th scudetto with one round to spare by beating Cagliari 2–0.[20] After beating Atalanta 3–1, Juventus finished the league unbeaten, the first team to do so since Serie A expanded to 20 teams and 38 rounds, only conceding 20 goals, finishing the League with the best defence in Italy. Juventus lost the Coppa Italia final to Napoli 2–0 therefore failing to finish an entire Italian season unbeaten.

In spite of the numerous draws conceded by the Bianconeri, Conte won critical acclaim as Juventus manager and earned comparisons with José Mourinho, primarily due to his obsession with tactics, his winning mentality and ability to bond together his players.

In his first 10 months on the Juventus bench, Conte, a former fan favourite as a midfielder for the club, had already reached a number of landmarks. On 17 March 2012, following a 5–0 win over rivals Fiorentina, he equalled Fabio Capello's run of 28 unbeaten games between November 2005 and May 2006. On 20 March 2012, he became the first coach to lead Juventus to a Coppa Italia final since Marcello Lippi in the 2004 Coppa Italia Final. On 25 March, following a 2–0 success at the Juventus Stadium he became the first coach to win both legs of the Derby d'Italia against rivals Internazionale since Fabio Capello in 2005–06. In November 2012, Conte was awarded the Trofeo Maestrelli, which is awarded to the three best Italian coaches in the professional league, the youth levels and outside Italy respectively.[21]

Conte's Juventus won the 2012–13 Serie A with relative ease. They accumulated 87 points, three more than the previous season where they also won the title, nine more than second placed Napoli and 15 more than third placed Milan. Despite their dominance, Juventus' top goalscorers in the league were Vidal and Vucinic, both with just ten goals, meaning they were the equal 23rd in the goalscorers charts. This showed both the lack of a quality front line but also Conte's ability to make all players on the park potential goalscorers. In his first UEFA Champions League campaign, Juventus were knocked out by Bayern in the quarter finals, losing 4-0 on aggregate. Bayern went on to win the competition. After winning a second consecutive Italian Supercup in 2013, Juventus managed to capture their third consecutive Serie A title under Conte during the 2013-14 season, winning the league with a Serie A record of 102 points; this title was Juventus's 30th overall Serie A title.[22] Juventus disappointed in Europe, however, and were eliminated in the first round of the UEFA Champions League that season, although they managed to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League. On 15 July 2014, Conte resigned as manager of Juventus.[23]

Italy

On 14 August 2014, following Cesare Prandelli's resignation, the Italian Football Federation announced to have agreed a two-year deal with Conte as new head coach of the national team until Euro 2016.[1] His first match as Italy's manager was a 2–0 win over Netherlands, during which Ciro Immobile and Daniele De Rossi scored the goals for Gli Azzurri. Conte won his first competitive match as Italy's manager on 9 September 2014, defeating Norway 2–0 in their opening 2016 European Qualifying match, in Oslo, with goals by Zaza and Bonucci. This was the first time Italy had managed to defeat the Norwegians in Norway since 1937.[24]He has been praised for his tactics on the pitch, and for giving youth such as Simone Zaza and Stefano Okaka opportunities to play in matches in order to give them experience for chances to flourish. Under Conte, Italy have not lost a single match so far. Out of the eight games under Conte, Italy have won five and drawn three.

There as been much controversy surrounding Italy's UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match on 28 March 2015 against Bulgaria, as Conte called up Brazilian-born Éder and Argentine-born Franco Vázquez. Both players hold an Italian citizenship as they have relatives that are Italian, allowing them to be eligible to play for Italy. Speaking at a Serie A meeting on 23 March 2015, Roberto Mancini said, "The Italian national team should be Italian. An Italian player deserves to play for the national team while someone who wasn't born in Italy, even if they have relatives, I don't think they deserve to." Italian manager, Conte's response to the use of foreign-born players was, "If Mauro Camoranesi was allowed to help Italy win the 2006 World Cup, then why can't Éder and Franco Vázquez lead the Azzurri to glory in next year's European Championship?"[25][26]

Controversy

Prior to Euro 2012, Conte was accused of failure to report attempted match-fixing during his time as manager of Siena by ex-Siena player Filippo Carobbio, connected with the betting scandal of 2011-12. Carobbio, after himself being charged with extensive involvement in the scandal, claimed that at halftime of a match between Siena and Novara, the Siena owner, Massimo Mezzaroma, sent a messenger into his players' dressing room to request that they deliberately lose the match in order to help Mezzaroma turn a large profit on a bet he had made. Siena, including Carobbio, instead went on to win the match 5-0, but the later accusation entailed a failure on the part of Conte to report the attempted fraud to the appropriate authorities - a violation of the sporting code of justice.[27]

Conte's lawyers, along with Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, strenuously denied these accusations.[28][29] Conte maintained that he had no knowledge of any attempts to fix the matches in which he was involved. The 23 other Siena players besides Carobbio from the season in question all supported Conte's declaration of innocence and stated that no such match-fixing attempt occurred with Conte's knowledge. No further evidence against Conte was ever produced aside from the word of Carobbio.[30][31]

Conte took the advice of his lawyers to take a plea bargain of three months ban, under Article 23 of Italian law without admission of guilt. On 1 August 2012, this plea bargain was rejected.[32] On 10 August FIGC announced his sentence as a suspension from football for the next 10 months, for failing to report match-fixing in Novara-Siena and AlbinoLeffe-Siena.[33] Conte again maintained his innocence and appealed the verdict.[34]

On 22 August 2012, the Federal Court of Justice dropped the accusation about Novara-Siena. Federal Court member Pietro Sandulli commented that "...it seemed illogical that such a senior and experienced coach would say in the locker room 'we're drawing this one' in front of 25 players".[35] However, the court confirmed the 10 months ban for AlbinoLeffe-Siena. The verdict was motivated by Christian Stellini's acceptance of a plea bargain and because the court deemed it "unlikely" that Conte could not have known about Stellini's moves.[36] On 23 August 2012, Juventus announced an appeal to Italy's sports arbitration panel against this new ban.[37] Following this appeal, Conte's touchline ban was reduced to four months.[38]

Juventus' management and players dedicated their Supercoppa Italiana win to Conte.[39]

Career statistics

International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1.
27 March 1999
 Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark  Denmark 1–2 Win UEFA Euro 2000 Qual.
2.
11 June 2000
 GelreDome, Arnhem, Netherlands  Turkey 1–2 Win UEFA Euro 2000

Managerial statistics

As of 31 March 2015.
Team Nat From To Record
GWDLWin %
Arezzo Italy July 2006 31 October 2006 12 3 5 4 25.00
Arezzo Italy 13 March 2007 June 2007 14 6 4 4 42.86
Bari Italy 27 December 2007 23 June 2009 67 32 20 15 47.76
Atalanta Italy 21 September 2009 7 January 2010 14 3 4 7 21.43
Siena Italy 1 July 2010 21 May 2011 44 22 14 8 50.00
Juventus Italy 22 May 2011 15 July 2014 151 102 34 15 67.55
Italy Italy 14 August 2014 Present 8 5 3 0 62.50
Total 310 173 84 53 55.81

Honours

Player

Juventus
Italy

Managerial

Bari
Siena
Juventus

Individual

Orders

5th Class / Knight: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2000[40]

Personal life

Conte and his wife Elisabetta have a daughter Vittoria.[41] The couple had been together for some fifteen years before marrying in June 2013.[42] Conte has expressed his gratitude to his family for their support during the Scommessopoli match-fixing scandal investigations: "I have a great woman by my side, one who always tries to understand me. As for my daughter, she is the other woman in my life. She is beginning to understand that her dad gets nervous when he does not win (a match)".

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Antonio Conte confirmed as new Italy boss". BBC Sport. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Conte ready to carve out his Italy vision". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Antonio Conte". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Gli eroi in bianconero: Antonio CONTE". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Euro 2000 Profile: Italy - Antonio Conte". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  6. ↑ http://footballspeak.com/post/2013/10/19/Juventus-Supremacy-of-europe.aspx
  7. ↑ http://www.serieaddicted.com/article/why-juventus-3-5-2-is-better-than-any-other-tactic.php
  8. ↑ "17-11-1991, l'esordio bianconero di Conte – Conte's Juventus debut". Juventus.com. YouTube. 17 November 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "Harsh penalty hands Italy victory". BBC Sport. 11 June 2000. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "Materazzi si dimette: Antonio Conte a Bari". Corriere dello Sport (in Italian). 28 December 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2007.
  11. ↑ "As Bari e Conte: sciolgono il rapporto" (in Italian). AS Bari. 23 June 2009. Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
  12. ↑ "L'allenatore Juve? La certezza: decide Lippi". Goal.com (in Italian). 21 May 2009.
  13. ↑ "Antonio Conte: I Am Ready To Coach Juventus". Goal.com. 11 May 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "Comunicato Stampa" (in Italian). Atalanta BC. 21 September 2009. Archived from the original on 31 October 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  15. ↑ "Il tecnico litiga con i tifosi E viene portato via a forza". Bergamo News (in Italian). 6 January 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  16. ↑ "Comunicato stampa" (in Italian). Atalanta BC. 7 January 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  17. ↑ "Antonio Conte è il nuovo allenatore del Siena" (in Italian). AC Siena. 23 May 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
  18. ↑ "Giuseppe Marotta reveals Juventus will appoint Antonio Conte as new coach". Weltfussball. 30 May 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  19. ↑ "Conte replaces Del Neri at Juventus". ESPN Soccernet. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  20. ↑ "Juventus wrap up Italian Serie A championship in style". BBC Sport. 6 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  21. ↑ "Juve scoop two awards at Trofeo Maestrelli ceremony". juventus.com. 13 November 2012.
  22. ↑ "Juventus Beats Cagliari to Set European Points Record". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  23. ↑ "Antonio Conte quits as coach of Italian champions". BBC Sport. 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  24. ↑ "Euro 2016, qualificazioni. Norvegia-Italia 0-2. Gol di Zaza e Bonucci". Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  25. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3007660/Roberto-Mancini-believes-foreign-born-players-NOT-able-play-Italy.html
  26. ↑ http://www.espnfc.us/italy/story/2363437/antonio-conte-defends-use-of-foreign-born-players-on-italy-squad
  27. ↑ http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2012/05/30/3137368/conte-knew-siena-president-mezzaroma-asked-us-to-lose
  28. ↑ "Juventus's Antonio Conte investigation". The Guardian. 28 May 2012.
  29. ↑ "How Italy has reacted to the latest match-fixing arrests". BBC News. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  30. ↑ http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2012/05/28/3132888/conte-insists-he-was-not-aware-of-any-match-fixing-at-siena?ICID=AR_RA_1
  31. ↑ http://www.football-italia.net/22581/contes-stand
  32. ↑ "NO AL PATTEGGIAMENTO PER CONTE, – 6 IL SIENA, GROSSETO RISCHIO LEGA PRO" (in Italian). FIGC. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  33. ↑ Conte handed 10-month ban in Scommessopoli scandal|http://sports.yahoo.com/news/conte-handed-10-month-ban-073700100--sow.html
  34. ↑ "Conte handed 10-month ban in Scommessopoli scandal". goal.com. 10 August 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  35. ↑ Italian judge: Conte lucky ban was not longer|http://sports.yahoo.com/news/italian-judge-conte-lucky-ban-225000143--sow.html
  36. ↑ Il Messaggero – Calcioscommesse, le motivazioni della sentenza-Conte|http://www.ilmessaggero.it/sport/calcio/calcioscommesse_conte_motivazioni_sentenza/notizie/215597.shtml
  37. ↑ Juventus to appeal again after Conte's 10-month ban upheld|http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19079604
  38. ↑ http://forzaitalianfootball.com/2012/10/juventus-coach-antonio-conte-has-ban-reduced/
  39. ↑ "Juventus dedicate Supercoppa Italiana win to banned Conte". Goal.com. 11 August 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  40. ↑ "ONORIFICENZE". http://www.quirinale.it'' (in Italian). 12 July 2000. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  41. ↑ "Conte: "Scommesse? Sono sereno"" (in Italian). La Stampa. 19 June 2012.
  42. ↑ "Antonio Conte sposa Elisabetta Muscarello: nozze da campioni" (in Italian). Oggi. 10 June 2013.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Gianluca Vialli		 Juventus F.C. captains
1996–2001 		Succeeded by
Alessandro Del Piero