Franco Baldini

Franco Baldini
Personal information
Date of birth3 October 1960
Place of birthReggello, Italy
Playing positionMidfielder
Club information
Current team
Tottenham Hotspur (Technical Director)
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1979–1980Sangiovannese30(7)
1980–1981Varese23(1)
1981–1982Bologna23(0)
1982–1984Bari47(3)
1984–1985Pescara34(1)
1985–1987Campobasso57(2)
1987–1988Foggia26(5)
1988–1989Casertana25(1)
1991–1992Colligiana?(9)
National team
1981Italy U-210(0)
Teams managed
1999–2005Roma (Director of Football)
2006–2007Real Madrid (Director)
2007–2011England (Assistant Manager)
2011–2013Roma (Director)
2013–Tottenham Hotspur (Technical Director)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Franco Baldini (born 3 October 1960) is a former Italian footballer and current Technical Director for Tottenham Hotspur.

Playing career

Born in Reggello, Italy, Baldini most notably played for Bari and Bologna.[1] In 1981 he was called up to the Italian U-21 squad but did not go on to make a competitive appearance.[2]

Managerial career

Roma

He became director of football at Roma in 1999, where he remained until his resignation in March 2005.[1] He joined Fabio Capello at Real Madrid in 2006.[1] When Capello took over as the England manager in December 2007, Baldini became assistant manager.[3] His role at the national team of England involved scouting, managing the supporting staff (e.g. the doctors, physiotherapists, masseurs and kit managers) and making the job as easy as possible for his Italian counterpart. He left England after their successful EURO 2012 qualification and joined Roma before the start of 2012, but was assisting the team well before then. Since then, former Roma manager Luis Enrique, director Walter Sabatini and himself have undergone a huge revolution at the club with new owner Thomas R. DiBenedetto to try and instill a system of running a football club similar to that of Barcelona. However, his time at Roma was criticised by removing Luis Enrique as manager and replace him with Zdeněk Zeman, which Baldini believes appointing Zemen was a mistake and said the club wanted to give the fans a spectacle.[4] Baldini left his post at AS Roma by mutual consent on 5 June 2013.[5] On 19 June 2013, he was confirmed in the role of Technical Director of Tottenham Hotspur.[6]

Tottenham Hotspur

At the end of the 2012/13 Premier League season, Tottenham manager Andre Villas Boas openly pushed for someone to be employed as a technical director "someone who has experience of dressing rooms, represents the club, and is able to link up with players and agents" [7] Soon after, on the 19th June 2013 Franco Baldini was appointed.[6] Baldini oversaw the departures of Steven Caulker, Tom Huddlestone, Clint Dempsey, Scott Parker and Gareth Bale for a reported world record fee of £85.3m to Real Madrid[8] He was thought to be responsible for signing several replacement players during the summer, including; Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Etienne Capoue, Roberto Soldado, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela.[9] Andre Villas Boas was sacked by the Tottenham Board on the 16th December following a humbling 5-0 Home defeat to Liverpool.[10] It is thought that Baldini offered his resignation, maybe as a sign of accepting culpability for the poor form of the team.[11] It was widely discussed in the media at the time that most of the players signed by Baldini were not performing as well as had been expected.[12] Baldini remained in post as new manager Tim Sherwood replaced Villas Boas.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kelso, Paul (14 December 2007). "Board disquiet stalls Capello's coronation". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
  2. ↑ "Convocazioni e presenze in campo". FIGC. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
  3. ↑ "Capello named new England manager". BBC Sport. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
  4. ↑ "Baldini takes blame for Roma season". Goal.com. 26 May 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Roma free Franco Baldini to join Tottenham as technical director, retrieved 19 June 2013
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Baldini Appointed Technical Director THFS website, Retrieved 19 June 2013
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23538218
  9. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2420146/Spurs-new-boys-pictured-time.html
  10. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25287554
  11. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/10533062/Tottenham-Hotspur-rejected-Franco-Baldinis-offer-of-resignation-following-departure-of-Andre-Villas-Boas.html
  12. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2513526/Tottenham-Hotspurs-summer-signings-failing-impress.html

External links