Ciro Ferrara

Ciro Ferrara (born 11 February 1967) is a former Italian footballer, and current manager of Juventus. He spent his playing career initially at Napoli and later on at Juventus as a defender.

Career

A native of Naples, Ferrara started his career at hometown club Napoli before moving to Juventus in 1994. He became captain soon after joining the team, and soon became one of the most experienced and decorated players, winning seven Serie A championships (five with Juventus, two with Napoli - this excludes the 2004–05 title taken away from Juventus due to the 2006 Serie A match-fixing scandal), two Coppa Italia titles (one with each team), three Supercoppa Italiana titles (two with Juventus, one with Napoli) and several European competitions (including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, Intercontinental Cup and European Super Cup). He scored one of Napoli's goals as they won the 1989 UEFA Cup Final.

Post 2000, Ferrara played an important role in Juventus' backline, being an experienced and dominating defender. His role as captain, though, was taken over by fellow Italian Alessandro Del Piero. In 1996–97, one of his peak seasons, he scored four goals in 32 Serie A competitions, while also being capped eight times internationally. Ironically, his first professional match, while at Napoli, was played against Juventus (it was a 0–0 draw). He retired from football after the 2004–05 season.

International

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For Italy, Ferrara was capped 49 times and played one game each at the 1990 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. His brilliance, however, was never truly realised at international level despite his impressive tally of caps. There are two reasons for this: First of all, Italy had a host of other world class players in his position that often blocked his route. These included Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, Mauro Tassotti, Pietro Vierchowod, Riccardo Ferri, Giuseppe Bergomi, Paolo Maldini, and later in his career Fabio Cannavaro, and Alessandro Nesta. Secondly, Ferrara was very unfortunate with injuries. This was most notable in the buildup to the 1998 World Cup in France. Ferrara, aged 31 at the time, was at the peak of his career, and had just finished 3 superb seasons at Juventus. In 96-97 and 97-98, he was quite possibly the best defender in Italy, and he was a regular in the Italy line-up. However, Ferrara suffered a serious injury a few weeks before the World Cup and missed the tournament. He was replaced by Nesta. From this time on, Ferrara was a reserve for Italy (and also for Juventus), whereas Cannavaro went on to achieve legendary status. Had Ferrara not suffered this injury, many believe he would have been one of the stars of France '98, as he was at the peak of his career. For this reason, he is not so well-known outside his native-country, but within Italy he is regarded as just another illustrious defender in a long-line of world class Italian defenders.

Coaching career

Ciro Ferrara was part of the Italian technical staff for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. After the World Cup, he became part of Juventus' staff joining former defending teammate Gianluca Pessotto, with Ferrara being named youth system chief (responsabile settore giovanile), dealing mostly with organisational aspects of the Juve academy. On July 2008 Ciro Ferrara took the UEFA Pro coaching badges following training at Coverciano, Florence.^[1]

After Juventus fired Claudio Ranieri following a string of seven league games without a win in the 2008-09 Serie A season, Ferrara was named interim head coach of Juventus on May 18, 2009 for the remaining two weeks of the season, with the goal of maintaining second place in the league table, and the possibility of being appointed on a full-time basis for a longer period. In his two games as caretaker manager, he led Juventus to two wins (against Siena and Lazio) and guided the Bianconeri to a runners-up spot in the league. Following these results, he emerged as a strong candidate for the position of Juventus' Head Coach for the 2009–10 season. On June 5 2009 Juventus formally announced the appointment of Ciro Ferrara as permanent head coach for the 2009–10 season.^[2]

Player achievements

Napoli:

• 2 Serie A: 1986-87, 1989-90
• 1 UEFA Cup: 1988-89
• 1 Coppa Italia: 1986-87
• 1 Italian Super Cups: 1990

Juventus:

• 5 Serie A: 1994–95, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03
• 1 Champions League: 1995–96
• 1 Intercontinental Cup: 1996
• 1 European Super Cup: 1996
• 1 Coppa Italia: 1994–95
• 4 Italian Super Cups: 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003
• 1 Intertoto Cup: 1999

Coaching achievements

Italy:

• FIFA World Cup: 2006 FIFA World Cup (as assistant manager)

Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Juventus		2009	Present	&0000000000000014.00000014	&0000000000000008.0000008	&0000000000000005.0000005	&0000000000000001.0000001	&0000000000000057.14000057.14
Total				&0000000000000014.00000014	&0000000000000008.0000008	&0000000000000005.0000005	&0000000000000001.0000001	&0000000000000057.14000057.14

References

Italy squad v • d • e Italy squad – UEFA Euro 1988 semi-finalists 1 Zenga • 2 Baresi • 3 Bergomi • 4 Cravero • 5 Ferrara • 6 Ferri • 7 Francini • 8 Maldini • 9 Ancelotti • 10 De Agostini • 11 De Napoli • 12 Tacconi • 13 Fusi • 14 Giannini • 15 Romano • 16 Altobelli • 17 Donadoni • 18 Mancini • 19 Rizzitelli • 20 Vialli • Coach: Vicini v • d • e Italy squad – 1990 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Zenga • 2 Baresi • 3 Bergomi • 4 De Agostini • 5 Ferrara • 6 Ferri • 7 Maldini • 8 Vierchowod • 9 Ancelotti • 10 Berti • 11 De Napoli • 12 Tacconi • 13 Giannini • 14 Marocchi • 15 Baggio • 16 Carnevale • 17 Donadoni • 18 Mancini • 19 Schillaci • 20 Serena • 21 Vialli • 22 Pagliuca • Coach: Vicini v • d • e Italy squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Abbiati • 2 Ferrara • 3 Maldini • 4 Albertini • 5 Cannavaro • 6 Negro • 7 Di Livio • 8 Conte • 9 Inzaghi • 10 Del Piero • 11 Pessotto • 12 Toldo • 13 Nesta • 14 Di Biagio • 15 Iuliano • 16 Ambrosini • 17 Zambrotta • 18 Fiore • 19 Montella • 20 Totti • 21 Delvecchio • 22 Antonioli • Coach: Zoff