In the history of Italian football there are quite remarkable personalities who have gained worldwide fame. And Ciro Ferrara is one of those footballers. He wrote his name in history, demonstrated incredible football qualities, and now continues to work in the field of football, becoming a professional coach. But how did his journey begin? What clubs did he play for? In which he became a coach? What did you manage to achieve? Ciro Ferrara is the legendary center back who every football fan should know about.
Carier start
Ciro Ferrara was born in 1967 in Naples, and this largely determined how his further career developed. He was enrolled in the youth academy at the age of thirteen and remained there until his adulthood. When he was eighteen years old, Ciro signed a professional contract with the club "Napoli", which was then one of the leading in Italy - and remains so to this day. But Ferrara managed to play two matches while still a minor. But the next year, when he was 18, he pleasantly surprised the audience - Ciro already began to appear on the field much more often, in the year he spent sixteen matches, and when he was only 19 years old, Ferrara already became a key player in the Neapolitan defensive line. Ciro gave eleven years of his professional career to his native club, playing 322 matches for him and scoring 15 goals. During this time, he managed to become a real legend of Italian football, get into the Italian team, and also win many trophies. Together with Napoli, Ciro Ferrara won two Italian championships, one Italian Cup and one Italian Super Cup, but the best achievement, of course, was the victory in the 1989 UEFA Cup. But what happened after eleven years of faithful service? In the summer of 1994, the 27-year-old player received an offer, which he simply could not refuse. He wanted to see Turin Juventus in his ranks, the strongest club in Italy and one of the strongest clubs in the world.
Going to Juventus
Naturally, Ferrara Ciro agreed to the transfer and immediately from the first season he became the main player of the team. The defender spent another eleven years in professional football, and he did not change the club more than once - he spent all eleven years at Juventus. He played even more matches for this club - 358, and this was largely due to the fact that Juventus took part in European competitions much more often than Napoli. During these eleven years, Ciro achieved incredible results - six times he became the champion of Italy, once won the Italian Cup, four times the Italian Super Cup, but much more interesting is what he was able to achieve in the international arena. In 1996, Juventus won the Champions League, the most prestigious trophy in club football - then Ferrara was in the new club for only the second year, but already managed to become one of the main players in the base, and his contribution to the victory cannot be underestimated. Later victories in the Intercontinental Cup, in the UEFA Super Cup followed , and the last international trophy won by Ferrara was the Intertoto Cup in 1999. Ferrara Ciro is a legend of both Napoli and Juventus, as well as Italian football as a whole.
Team appearances
In the Italian national team, Chiro Ferrara debuted in 1987 at the age of 20. The first match for him was a friendly game against Argentina, in which Italy defeated the enemy with a score of 3: 1. Then Ferrara played in two more qualifying matches for the 1988 European Championship, to which he was eventually invited, but remained on the bench for the entire tournament. At the 1990 World Championships , Ferrara was also a substitute, but came out at the base for the match for third place against England, in which the Italians won. After this, Ferrara fell out of the team’s cage for a long time and was called up only occasionally for friendly matches. He was not even called to the 1996 European Championship, although he played regularly in the qualification. The same goes for the 1998 World Cup - it was only in 2000 that he was called up to the European Championship, but only had one decisive group match against the Swedish national team. Immediately after this championship, Ferrara announced that he was finishing his career in the national team - in the end, all he could achieve with Italy was third place at the 1990 World Cup and second place at the European Championship ten years later. As for the career of the player as a whole, here Ferrara played another five years, after which in 2005, at the age of 38, he announced that he was leaving the big sport. However, the story of such a football player as Ferrara Ciro did not end there - football was life for him, so he was not ready to say goodbye to his favorite business.
Trainer assistant
Back in 2004, when the football player Ferrara Ciro was listed as a full-fledged player, he had already begun to think about his future. Therefore, he joined the coaching staff of one of the most famous Italian coaches in the world, Marcello Lippi, under whose leadership he played in Juventus. Together with Lippi, he coached the Italian national team, which was to perform at the 2006 World Cup - and it was then that the Italians won the World Cup, so Ferrara successfully managed to put his hand to this achievement. Lippi left the post of national team coach immediately after the championship, and Ferrara left with him.
Youth coordination and return to the national team
He took over as youth coordinator at Juventus, where he worked for two years before Lippi was called back to the national team - Ciro went after him, again becoming his assistant. So he worked for another year, combining the position of coordinator in Juventus, an assistant coach in the Italian team, as well as passing courses for a coaching license. In 2009, Ciro Ferrrara received permission to train a professional club on his own, so it was time to tie up the post of coordinator - he became the head coach of Juventus. Naturally, everyone here knew that such a Ciro Ferrara - biography, goals, the selections of this player were remembered by fans from the eleven-year history of him and the club.
Start of coaching
Ciro Ferrara is an Italian footballer who in the past undoubtedly had the highest level en field. However, was he able to show the same result outside of it, at the helm of the team? Unfortunately, the beginning of his coaching career turned out to be far from the best - having given an excellent start with five victories in a row, gradually Juventus Ferrara began to show football, terrifying for the best club in Italy. The last straw was three defeats in a row in the championship and a relegation to ¼ Italian Cup. Ferrara was fired in January 2010 and remained unemployed until October, after which he was called to the position of coach in the Italian youth team.
Coaching in the youth team
It was here that Ferrara showed his best side, proving to everyone that he is not a failed coach - he simply swung at once to a too large team. Of the nineteen matches, Ferrara lost only one, and 12 won. And he most likely would have achieved even greater success if he had not received an offer from Sampdoria. Whatever the success with the youth team, any coach strives for more, so the offer from the club from the Premier League could not be rejected. Therefore, Ferrara, finally tied with the Irish, in July 2012 became the head coach of the Italian “Sampdoria”. Well, as it turned out, he most likely would have been better off remaining the coach of the youth team and leading it to success at the European Championships.
Failure at Sampdoria
The club most likely regretted appointing Ferrara after his first match - this was the third round of the Italian Cup, where Sampdoria caught the simplest opponent - Juve Stabia. Ciro's wards opened the score in the second half, but could not keep the advantage. The main and extra time ended in a draw, and in the penalty shootout the club from the third division knocked out a team from the top division from the competition. After that, the impression was that Sampdoria found its game under the leadership of Ferrara - there were three victories in the championship in a row, one of which was over the formidable Milan. But it was too early to rejoice - three draws followed three victories, and then a series of seven losses in a row. Then Sampdoria managed to win two more matches, to draw one, and after the next two defeats the management decided to send Ferrara to resign. So already in December 2012, Ciro lost his job and decided to take a break from coaching, as he was very disappointed with what happened to him.
Return to the coaching bridge
Perhaps Ferrara’s career as a coach would have ended in 2012, if not for the money. In July of this year, the leadership of the Wuhan Zhouer Chinese club contacted Ferrara and offered the million dollar contract to the former Italian football legend to lead the club. At the moment, he has managed to hold four matches at the helm of a new team - and now he can only boast of varying success: in two cases, his wards won, and in two they lost.