Maurizio D'Angelo

Maurizio D'Angelo (born September 29, 1969 in Naples) is an Italian football manager and former player, best known for his career as Chievo captain during the 1990s. He most recently served as manager of F.C. Südtirol in the Italian Lega Pro Seconda Divisione.

Career

Playing

A centre back, D'Angelo started his career playing for amateur team Trissino in 1986; he then joined Marzotto Valdagno, another amateur team, one year later, and finally signed for Chievo in 1988. During his first season with the gialloblu, D'Angelo made 17 appearances in the Serie C2 league. He then spent a couple of seasons on loan to Serie C2 teams Marzotto Valdagno and Derthona respectively. He returned to Chievo in 1991, finding his team in Serie C1 and quickly establishing himself as a mainstay for the Ceo, captaining his side to two promotions, and also in their subsequent Serie A campaigns.

He made his Serie A debut, together with several of his fellow Chievo players, on August 26, 2001, in a surprise away victory against Fiorentina. In 2002 he became a back-up player, and consequently chose to leave the captaincy to Lorenzo D'Anna, another long-time Chievo player. On January 2003 he decided to leave Chievo, after twelve consecutive seasons with them, in order to join his hometown club Napoli, who were playing Serie B at the time. He returned to Chievo later on in the summer, mainly helping Luigi Delneri to his coaching duties. He made his lone and final appearance with Chievo on May 16, 2004, in a Serie A home league match against Bologna.

Coaching

Following his retirement in 2004, D'Angelo stayed at Chievo, joining the non-coaching staff as assistant to new head coach Mario Beretta. However, despite a good start, Chievo found themselves to be in serious danger of relegation in the final Serie A weeks, and the club management decided to sack Beretta and appoint D'Angelo as caretaker for the three remaining matches. Under D'Angelo, Chievo ultimately managed to recover from their poor results, and escaped relegation in the end.

For the following season, D'Angelo returned to serve as Chievo's assistant coach, this time working alongside Giuseppe Pillon. He then served as team scout from October 2006 to June 2008, leaving then Chievo in order to become head coach of Serie C2 team F.C. Südtirol. He was however sacked only a few months later, on November 12, 2008, due to poor results.^[1]

References