Giovanni Bucaro

Giovanni Bucaro (born 20 November 1970 in Palermo) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender during the 1990s, and current coach.

Career

Player

Bucaro began his playing career with Sorrento. He started off with the Rossoneri in their youth team and went on to make 31 appearances for the first team between 1986 and 1988. In 1988 he joined Foggia who were then in the 3rd division of Italian football. In 1989 his second season saw the arrival of manager Zdeněk Zeman, whose aggressive and entertaining style of football saw Foggia enter the greatest period in its history went it eventually reached Serie A in 1991. Zeman achieved promotion to Serie B in his first season and Bucaro played a key role in defence in this promotion winning team. Following another successful season for Foggia, who achieved promotion to Serie A as champions, Bucaro was sold to Fiorentina. He failed to make an appearance for the Tuscan side and was moved onto Modena in 1991 for whom he made 22 appearances.

Following this solitary season at Modena he joined Bologna for whom he made 29 appearances. By 1993 he had rejoined Foggia for whom he played in their final season in Serie A before they were relegated to Serie B in 1995. Bucaro played another season for Foggia in 1995-1996 when the club finished mid table. He joined SPAL the following season and made 17 appearances in the 3rd division. Remaining in the lower divisions of Italian football he joined Ascoli and stayed for 3 seasons playing a total of 87 league games. He then joined Avellino who were also then in the 3rd division and between 2000 and 2003 he played 46 games for the club. In his final season with the club they achieved promotion back to Serie B by defeating Napoli in the play-off final. It was their first time back in the secon division in 11 years. This was his final year as a player and he thus went out on a high note.

Manager

After spells as assistant manager at both Ascoli and Salernitana Bucaro began his first venture into management with Campobello in Serie D for the 2006–07 season, and then with Pomigliano. His success with Pomigliano saw him move up a division to manage Manfredonia in the 3rd division of Italian football. He helped Manfredonia to avoid relegation (in Italian la salvezza) and this caught the attention of Juventus who invited him to join them as youth team coach for the 2010-2011 season.^[1][2] After spending a year at Juventus he joined Avellino as first team coach in August.

On 21 July 2012 Giovanni Bucaro was announced as the new manager of Sorrento. He was presented to the press and stated that he hoped to emulate his one time manager Zeman in his new role as Sorrento coach.^[3][4] The 2012-2013 season began with a goaless draw against Gubbio and caused Bucaro to immediately lament the lack of a decent striker to help Sorrento's cause.^[5] He was sacked on January 2013 due to poor results.

On July 2014 he was named head coach of newly-promoted Lega Pro club Savoia. He was however dismissed on 28 October 2014 due to poor results.^[6]

Honours

As a player

Foggia

• Serie B (1): 1990–91

Avellino

Serie C1/B play-off winners (1): 2004-2005.

References