Carlo Mazzone
Mazzone captaining Ascoli in 1968
Personal information
Date of birth (1937-03-19)19 March 1937
Place of birth Rome, Italy
Date of death 19 August 2023(2023-08-19) (aged 86)
Place of death Ascoli Piceno, Italy
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Position(s) Centre-back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1956–1957 Latina 25 (0)
1957–1959 Roma 2 (0)
1959 SPAL
1959―1960 Siena 13 (0)
1960–1969 Ascoli 219 (11)
Managerial career
1968–1975 Ascoli
1975–1977 Fiorentina
1978–1980 Catanzaro
1980–1984 Ascoli
1985–1986 Bologna
1987–1990 Lecce
1990–1991 Pescara
1991–1993 Cagliari
1993–1996 Roma
1996–1997 Cagliari
1997–1998 Napoli
1998–1999 Bologna
1999–2000 Perugia
2000–2003 Brescia
2003–2005 Bologna
2006 Livorno
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Carlo "Carletto" Mazzone (19 March 1937 – 19 August 2023) was an Italian professional association football player and manager, who played as a centre-back.[1]

Career

Born in Rome, Mazzone was nicknamed Sor Carletto because of his Roman origins and the strong accent typical of the inhabitants of the Italian capital city. He played several seasons for Roma, as well as for SPAL and Ascoli. He spent nine seasons with Ascoli, retiring during the 1968–69 season to become the club's manager in Serie C, helping the team to win the title in 1972.[2]

Already popular with the Ascoli fans because of his history as a former player for the club, Mazzone gained even more popularity by leading the team for twelve years, up to their historic first ever Serie A appearance. Successively, Mazzone coached several Serie A and Serie B teams, such as Fiorentina, achieving his personal best result in Serie A, a third-place finish during the 1976–77 Serie A season, also winning the Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1975. From 1991 to 1993, he subsequently coached Catanzaro, Bologna, Lecce, Pescara, and Cagliari, leading the latter team to its first appearance in a European competition since the times of Gigi Riva. Mazzone always held his residence in Ascoli Piceno, home of Ascoli Calcio, the team in which he started his long managing career, despite having coached around the whole country for 35 years and more.[3]

After his successes at Cagliari, Mazzone fulfilled his dream, being called to manage his hometown club Roma for the 1993–94 Serie A season, where he coached a young Francesco Totti.[4] He remained at the helm of Roma for three seasons,[5] without being able to obtain any notable triumph. Mazzone returned to Cagliari for the 1996–97 Serie A season, and later also briefly coached Napoli for the 1997–98 Serie A season, before being sacked. He took charge of Bologna again for the 1998–99 Serie A season, winning the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup and reaching the semi-final of both the 1998–99 UEFA Cup and the 1998–99 Coppa Italia, also qualifying for the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup.[6]

In 1999, Mazzone joined Perugia. In 2000, he took charge of Serie A newcomers Brescia in 2000, where he had the opportunity to coach Roberto Baggio, and subsequently also Andrea Pirlo, Luca Toni, Igli Tare, and Pep Guardiola.[4][7] During his first season with the club, he helped the club to avoid relegation for the first time in 40 years, leading them to their best ever Serie A finish to qualify for the 2001 UEFA Intertoto Cup, where they reached the final.[4][8] At Brescia, Mazzone is also remembered for making a ground-breaking decision, becoming the first coach to deploy Pirlo in a deeper creative role, as a deep-lying playmaker, rather than as an offensive midfielder, the role which Baggio occupied.[9] Pirlo particularly excelled in this new role due to his technique, vision, and long passing ability, and went on to have a highly successful career, earning a reputation as one of the best ever players in his position.[10][11][12]

During the 2001–02 Serie A season, Mazzone was at the centre of controversy when on 30 September 2001, during a league match against rivals Atalanta, he ran for about 70 meters and screamed towards the Atalanta supporters, who had offended him for the entire match with personal insults, after his team equalised in the closing minutes.[13] That season, Brescia once again managed to avoid relegation, and also reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, their best ever result in the competition.[4][8]

In 2002, Mazzone was awarded the Panchina d'Oro award, in honour of his career. He was the most experienced coach in the Italian football panorama, having coached more than 1,000 professional matches. On 18 March 2006, he became the Italian manager with the most Serie A matches coached ever, equalling and then overcoming the past record held by Nereo Rocco. His record stands at 792 Serie A appearances (excluding five appearances in play-off matches).[14] Baggio often defined several times Mazzone as one of the best coaches he met in his playing career. In a radio interview on 18 February 2006, Baggio declared that Mazzone asked him to join him in a playing football comeback in Livorno; however, Baggio stated that, even if he would have given him an affirmative answer because of his gratitude for what Mazzone did for him, he was forced to refuse because of his physical troubles. Guardiola said that he learnt a lot from Mazzone during his Brescia years.[4]

After helping the team avoid relegation for the third consecutive time in the 2002–03 Serie A season, Mazzone left Brescia in 2003 in order to coach Bologna for the third time in his long career. His adventure lasted only two seasons, as the team was surprisingly relegated to Serie B at the end of the 2004–05 Serie A season. It was the first relegation ever in Mazzone's career, and it convinced him to take a break from coaching for a while. On 7 February 2006, at the age of 68 years and 11 months, Mazzone accepted an offer of Livorno, filling the coaching position which had been left vacant by Roberto Donadoni, who resigned the previous day; Mazzone resigned at the end of the season. Mazzone died on 19 August 2023, at the age of 86.[15]

Managerial statistics

Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Ascoli 4 August 1968 27 July 1975 270 117 91 62 043.33
Fiorentina 28 July 1975 19 December 1977 97 34 33 30 035.05
Catanzaro 9 August 1978 6 April 1980 68 14 32 22 020.59
Ascoli 28 July 1980 26 November 1984 140 41 47 52 029.29
Bologna 29 July 1985 17 June 1986 43 17 12 14 039.53
Lecce 19 April 1987 29 June 1990 133 49 44 40 036.84
Cagliari 9 October 1991 30 June 1993 67 22 26 19 032.84
Roma 5 July 1993 30 June 1996 121 51 39 31 042.15
Cagliari 23 October 1996 27 June 1997 31 8 10 13 025.81
Napoli 19 October 1997 24 November 1997 4 1 0 3 025.00
Bologna 8 July 1998 28 June 1999 60 26 16 18 043.33
Perugia 8 July 1999 21 June 2000 42 16 8 18 038.10
Brescia 7 July 2000 21 June 2003 125 39 49 37 031.20
Bologna 1 August 2003 27 June 2005 82 22 24 36 026.83
Livorno 7 February 2006 8 June 2006 15 2 5 8 013.33
Total 1,298 459 436 403 035.36

Honours

Ascoli[2]

Fiorentina[2]

Lecce[2]

Bologna[2]

Individual

References

  1. ^ a b Carlo Mazzone at WorldFootball.net
  2. ^ a b c d e f Bocca, Fabrizio (17 March 2017). "Gli 80 anni di Carlo Mazzone: una vita tra campioni e panchine". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  3. ^ "Carlo Mazzone" (in French). Monde du Foot.fr. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e MATTEO PINCI (21 October 2014). "Mazzone ricorda Guardiola: "Un grande uomo e calciatore ma tifo Roma, Totti è un figlio"" (in Italian). La Repubbica. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  5. ^ Vince Masiello (28 December 2009). "Carlo Mazzone: Luca Toni Is The 'Perfect Man' For Roma". Goal.com. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  6. ^ Campisi, Fabio (2002). Il Bologna è una fede (in Italian). Bologna: Edizioni Pengragon. pp. 150–51. ISBN 8883421213. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  7. ^ "Mazzone svela l'inedito: "Stavo convincendo Baggio a tornare a giocare. A quest'ora sarei ancora sulla panchina del Livorno..."" (in Italian). Il Sole 24 ore. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  8. ^ a b "Storie di Provincia: le quattro stagioni del Brescia di Baggio e Mazzone (e non solo)". mondopallone.it (in Italian). 18 July 2013. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  9. ^ Vanni Spinella (13 January 2015). "Mercato story: Pirlo al Brescia, magie in coppia con Baggio" (in Italian). Sky. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  10. ^ "Roberto Baggio: 'Pirlo è un fuoriclasse'" (in Italian). Tutto Mercato.web. 9 November 2007. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  11. ^ Giordano, Christian (13 August 2008). "Da Tardelli a Desailly, cambiare serve". La Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  12. ^ "Pirlo: 'Tra tutti i trofei vinti scelgo assolutamente il Mondiale!'" (in Italian). FIGC. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  13. ^ "Brescia, grande rimonta Mazzone, lite ed espulsione" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 30 September 2001. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  14. ^ "Serie A: record, curiosità e statistiche dei 20 allenatori" (in Italian). sport.sky.it. 16 August 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  15. ^ "Carlo Mazzone, morto lo storico allenatore: aveva 86 anni. Con Totti e Baggio un rapporto speciale". Il Messaggero (in Italian). 19 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  16. ^ "Pirlo, Mazzone, Boniek in Hall of Fame". Football Italia. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
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