Trapattoni

Just came across this on wiki,surely has to be bullsh*t, scroll down till the end and youll see what im talkin about, It would be a major coup in my book if it came off...............

 

 

[edit] Career

[edit] Player

This short section requires expansion.

Trapattoni was born in Cusano Milanino, in the province of Milan.

He had a successful career as a player with AC Milan in the 1960s and early 1970s. Playing primarily as a defender and defensive midfielder with the goal to pass the ball to more creative players such as Giovanni Lodetti and Gianni Rivera, he played also for the Italian team, mostly as centre back with notable marking skills. He did not play very many games for AC Milan because he was getting injured thoroughly. After taking a break from the Italian giants, he thought he could settle with a mid-table team for one last season instead of being at one club all his life. This is when he moved to Varese, after a successful season with them, He then retired from professional football and took a job as a manager two years later.

[edit] Coach

Trapattoni began coaching at A.C. Milan, first as youth coach, then as caretaker, and as first team coach in 1975. He then moved on to Juventus in 1976 and from there to Inter Milan in 1986, obtaining great successes at both sides. He returned to Juventus in 1991 before taking his first job outside Italy, as coach of FC Bayern Munich in 1994, and then from 1996 to 1998. He is well remembered by German fans for an emotional outburst in broken German during a press conference on 10 March 1998 ("Was erlaube Strunz?"..."Ich habe fertig!" − roughly What dares Strunz? … I'm through) where he criticized the team's attitude ("Diese Spieler waren schwach wie eine Flasche leer!" − roughly Those player were weak like an empty bottle)^[3]. He also coached Cagliari (1995) and Fiorentina (1998 to 2000, leading it to secure a UEFA Champions League place).

In July 2000 Trapattoni took charge of the Italian national team after the resignation of Dino Zoff. He led the team to the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In that tournament, after winning its first match against Ecuador, Italy's form dropped and they lost to Croatia controversially and almost lost to Mexico, with Alessandro Del Piero scoring the equalizer. In the second round, Italy was expected to easily defeat South Korea, but was however defeated in one of the biggest upsets in the FIFA World Cup history.

Despite referee Byron Moreno being blamed by Italians as the main reason for Italy's exit,{fact} disallowing a goal and sending off Francesco Totti for shirt pulling in the penalty box, Trapattoni was also blamed for playing an over-defensive brand of football and not taking arguably who was Italy's most gifted player Roberto Baggio. {fact}

At 2004 European Championship Italy once again failed to shine, having performed with dreaded defensive tactics. They drew to both Denmark and Sweden leading to an early exit. On 25 June 2004, Marcello Lippi was named as Trapattoni's successor, and took over once Trapattoni's contract ran out on 15 July 2004.

On 5 July, Trapattoni was named as new coach of Lisbon club SL Benfica, whom he led to win the Portuguese league for the first time in eleven years, and also to the cup final (which Benfica lost to Vitória F.C.). He resigned after the 2005 season, saying he wanted to be closer to his family (in the north of Italy) and returned to Germany with VfB Stuttgart, with much hype about his appointment. However, during his 20 games at the helm, Stuttgart showed poor form with 12 draws, many of these as 0-0 results. Denmark international forwards Jon Dahl Tomasson and Jesper Grønkjær openly criticized their coach, claiming he was afraid to attack. Trapattoni responded by putting both on the bench, but was fired himself the very next day on 9 February 2006, based on "not fulfilling the ambitions of the club". He was replaced by Armin Veh.

Over the past 25 years, Trapattoni has won nine league titles, a European Cup, a Cup Winners' Cup, three UEFA Cups, the Super Cup and two Italian Cups.

In May 2006, FC Red Bull Salzburg announced it had signed Trapattoni as its new Director of Football, along with one of his former players, Lothar Matthäus, as coach. Trapattoni initially cast doubt on this report almost immediately afterward, claiming he had not signed any contract. But three days later, both he and Matthäus signed and made their hirings official. After their successful season of 2006/07, the club's board of directors unanimously decided to dismiss Matthäus, making Thorsten Fink Trappatoni's new assistant.

29th January 2008, Trapatoni is now expected to be appointed as Republic of Ireland manager within the next couple of days