Giovanni Tedesco

Giovanni Tedesco
Tedesco with Birkrikara in July 2015
Personal information
Date of birth (1972-05-13) 13 May 1972 (age 52)
Place of birth Palermo, Italy
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Centre midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1993 Reggina 74 (6)
1993–1995 Fiorentina 47 (2)
1995–1997 Foggia 63 (5)
1997–1998 Salernitana 41 (3)
1998–2004 Perugia 152 (24)
2004–2006 Genoa 77 (9)
2006–2010 Palermo 78 (9)
Managerial career
2012 Foligno
2014–2015 Floriana
2015 Birkirkara
2016 Palermo
2016–2017 Floriana
2018–2019 Ħamrun Spartans
2019–2020 Gżira United
2020 Valletta
2020 Al Bataeh
2020–2021 Sirens
2021 Ras Al Khaimah
2022 St. Lucia
2022–2023 Birkirkara
2024– Gżira United
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Giovanni Tedesco (born 13 May 1972 in Palermo) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

Career

Club career

Despite being a native of Palermo, Tedesco was initially refused by the local team, Palermo, because of his thin build, and moved to Reggina. At Reggina, he quickly became a regular in 1990. After three seasons with Reggina (1 in Serie B, 2 in Serie C1), Tedesco moved to Fiorentina in 1993 and helped the team to win the Serie B league. The following season, he then debuted in Serie A in a 2–1 win against Cagliari on 4 September 1994.

Successively, Tedesco has also played for Foggia, Salernitana and Perugia, where he stayed for six seasons and became popular as a valuable midfielder and team leader, especially during his time with Serse Cosmi as manager.

In January 2004, Tedesco was signed by Genoa of Serie B in an attempt to strengthen the team for the end of the season, which was seeing the rossoblu fighting for the promotion to Serie A. However, Tedesco only settle in with the arrival of Serse Cosmi, his former coach at Perugia, for the following season, who replaced Luigi De Canio who had not been able to maintain the team into the top table positions. Genoa eventually won Serie B in 2005. However the club was denied promotion and instead relegated to Serie C1 due to alleged match frauds. After relegation to Serie C1, Tedesco chose to stay and played in Genoa for the first half of the 2005–06 season before accepting an offer from Palermo which he would not have ever refused.

On 8 January 2006 Tedesco played his 500th professional match, a home debut match against Lazio, which the club won 3–1, and he scored the second goal. His contract with Palermo, due to expire in June 2007, was renewed for one more year after the final matchday.[1] He was later stated to have refused offers from several other clubs in order to stay in Palermo and expecting to end his playing career with the rosanero.[2] On 10 April 2008 he agreed terms with Palermo for another one-year extension of his contract with the rosanero.[3]

In 2008–09 he was featured even less, only playing 17 games in his season with the rosanero, many of them in the final part of season. In June 2009 the club announced to have agreed a two-year extension for the 37-year-old local hero and Palermo native, who will play with a rosanero jersey until June 2011.[4] However, in the 2009–10 season he found limited opportunities in the first team, appearing only seven times during the club's Serie A season. In June 2010 it was confirmed Giovanni Tedesco's retirement from football, and his appointment as US Palermo's new team manager.[5]

Coaching career

After a few months as team manager of Palermo, Tedesco was moved into the youth coaching staff, initially working alongside youth system chief Rosario Argento as his aide; later in September 2011 Tedesco took his first coaching job, as head of the under-17 Allievi Regionali team for Palermo.[6]

On 26 June 2012, Tedesco amicably parted company with Palermo in order to pursue a head coaching career.[7] The next day he was announced as new coach of Lega Pro Seconda Divisione club Foligno,[8] but he was sacked after four matches.

On 6 April 2014, Tedesco was assigned as the new manager for Floriana FC. He then switched to another Maltese team, Birkirkara, also coaching former Palermo teammate Fabrizio Miccoli.

On 25 January 2016, a few weeks after his departure from Birkirkara, Tedesco was announced as new head coach of his hometown club Palermo, as the club was searching for a trainer with the requested UEFA Pro coaching badges due to newly appointed Guillermo Barros Schelotto's pending issues on that sense. On that sense, Tedesco will officially fill in the role of head coach and hold press conferences till the end of the season, with Schelotto working alongside him as a "team manager" till his bureaucratic issues will not get solved.[9]

On 10 February 2016, following Schelotto's resignation after UEFA refusal to hand him a valid European coaching authorization, Palermo announced to have promoted Primavera youth coach Giovanni Bosi as new head coach, with Tedesco as his technical collaborator.[10]

He successively left Palermo in order to return to Floriana as head coach on 15 June 2016.[11]

Further to 2017–18 Maltese FA Trophy defeat against Naxxar Lions F.C., Tedesco resigned with immediate effect from Head Coach of Floriana.[12]

At the end of May 2018, he was appointed as coach of Ħamrun Spartans F.C.[13][14][15][16] After reaching the fourth place in the league, he resigned from his position at the end of the season.[17]

Right after leaving, he signed a new three-years contract with Gżira United.[18] On 18 July 2019, he surprisingly guided Gżira United to eliminate Croatian powerhouse Hajduk Split in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round by defeating them at home 3–1.[19] On 21 January 2020 Tedesco was sacked by the Maroons, leaving the team at the fourth position in the league.[20]

After just one month, in February 2020, he has been appointed as new manager of Valletta F.C., signing a deal until the end of the season.[21] After just three matches at the helm of the Citizens (due to the end of the season caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta[22]), in June Tedesco decided not to agree terms with the club for another year, remaining without a team.[23]

In October 2020, he was appointed as a manager of Al Bataeh Club in Al Bataeh, United Arab Emirates in hoping of getting the new club to promotion[24] however, due to getting infected with COVID-19 virus, he stepped down as coach of the new Emirati side around the end of the month with only coaching the team during the preliminary round of the UAE President's Cup.[25][26]

In December 2020 Tedesco made his return to Malta, signing a one-year contract with the Premier League side Sirens.[27] On 12 April 2021 it was confirmed, that Tedesco would leave the club, as his contract had expired.[28] In August 2021, Tedesco signed for Emirati club Ras Al Khaimah Club.[29] However, a month later, he was forced to part ways with the club after their sporting project floundered due to financial problems.[30]

In January 2022 Tedesco moved back to Malta, signing a contract with Premier League side St. Lucia F.C. until the end of the season.[31] After ending the season with St. Lucia, Tedesco was named new head coach of Birkirkara, returning to the club for a second time;[32] he subsequently led the team to win the 2022–23 Maltese FA Trophy.[33] On 26 November 2023 he resign his position with 3 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeat with 10th position.

Personal life

Giovanni Tedesco has two brothers who are also football coaches and former players: Salvatore (formerly of Perugia, Trapani and Lucchese) and Giacomo, who played at the Serie A level with Salernitana, Napoli, Reggina, Catania and Bologna.

Honours

Player

Perugia

Manager

Floriana
Birkirkara

References

  1. ^ "Tedesco pens new deal". Football Italia. 28 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 May 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2007.
  2. ^ "Tedesco:"Mi sono arrivate tante offerte"" (in Italian). Stadionews.it. 31 May 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2007. [dead link‍]
  3. ^ "Prolungato il contratto di Tedesco" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 10 April 2008. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 10 April 2008.
  4. ^ "GIOVANNI TEDESCO AL PALERMO PER ALTRI DUE ANNI" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 8 June 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2009.
  5. ^ "GIOVANNI TEDESCO TEAM MANAGER DEL PALERMO". US Città di Palermo. 6 July 2010. Archived from the original on 30 March 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2010.
  6. ^ "PALERMO: Giovanni Tedesco allenatore giovanili" [PALERMO: Giovanni Tedesco new youth coach] (in Italian). Mediagol.it. 10 September 2011. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  7. ^ "TEDESCO SALUTA IL PALERMO" [TEDESCO SAYS GOODBYE TO PALERMO]. US Città di Palermo. 26 June 2012. Archived from the original on 4 July 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  8. ^ "UFFICIALE: Giovanni Tedesco allenatore del Foligno" [OFFICIAL: Giovanni Tedesco new Foligno head coach]. TuttoMercatoWeb. 27 June 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
  9. ^ "COMUNICATO DELLA SOCIETA'" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 25 January 2016. Archived from the original on 2 May 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  10. ^ "COMUNICATO DEL PRESIDENTE" (in Italian). US Città di Palermo. 10 February 2016. Archived from the original on 23 May 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
  11. ^ "Tedesco back in charge at Floriana". Times of Malta. 15 June 2016. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  12. ^ "Tedesco parts ways with Floriana".
  13. ^ "Ħamrun appoint Tedesco as coach".
  14. ^ "Giovanni Tedesco è il nuovo tecnico dell'Hamrun / UFFICIALE". June 2018.
  15. ^ "Giovanni Tedesco huwa l-kowċ il-ġdid ta' Ħamrun Spartans".
  16. ^ "CALCIO, HAMRUN: GIOVANNI TEDESCO E' IL NUOVO ALLENATORE - Sport - Repubblica.it".
  17. ^ "Tedesco steps down as Ħamrun coach". Times of Malta. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
  18. ^ "Gżira United appoint Tedesco as coach". Times of Malta. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  19. ^ "GZIRA UNITED STAGE INCREDIBLE COMEBACK TO ELIMINATE HAJDUK SPLIT". MaltaFootball.com. 18 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  20. ^ V. Camilleri (21 January 2020). "'Disappointed' Tedesco sacked by Gżira United". Times of Malta. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  21. ^ Camilleri, Valhmor (19 February 2020). "Updated: Proud Tedesco keen to lead Valletta to more trophies". Times of Malta. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  22. ^ "Malta FA Executive Committee – Statement". 18 May 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  23. ^ Camilleri, Valhmor (13 June 2020). "Tedesco parts way with Valletta". Times of Malta. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  24. ^ "مدرب البطائح يستبشر خيراً ببلوغ "المحترفين" على الطريقة الإيطالية" (in Arabic). emaratalyoum. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  25. ^ "إنهاء علاقة البطائح ومدربه ودّياً" (in Arabic). Albayan. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  26. ^ "البطائح يقبل استقالة مدربه الإيطالي تيديسكو" (in Arabic). emaratalyoum. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  27. ^ Camilleri, Valhmor (14 December 2020). "Updated: Tedesco replaces D'Amato as Sirens FC coach". SportDesk. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  28. ^ Giovanni Tedesco leaves Sirens as contract expires, timesofmalta.com, 12 April 2021
  29. ^ Tedesco: «Mi sarebbe piaciuto avere una chance in Italia», forzapalermo.it, 18 August 2021
  30. ^ Giovanni Tedesco returns to Malta after Ras Al Khaimah project flounders, timesofmalta.com, 20 September 2021
  31. ^ Camilleri, Valhmor (26 January 2022). "Giovanni Tedesco named new coach of Santa Lucia FC". SportsDesk. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  32. ^ "Giovanni Tedesco torna sulla panchina del Birkirkara: ufficiale l'annuncio" (in Italian). SerieD24.com. 18 May 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  33. ^ "Giovanni Tedesco conquista la Coppa di Malta col Birkirkara, secondo trofeo lontano dall'Italia" (in Italian). Giornale di Sicilia. 1 May 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  34. ^ "Wolfsburg 0-2 Perugia (Aggregate: 0 - 3)". uefa.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2020.