Luciano Spalletti

Luciano Spalletti.

Luciano Spalletti (born 7 March 1959 in Certaldo, Florence) is an Italian football coach who has recently taken charge of A.S. Roma in Serie A.

A former football player for Serie C teams such as Empoli and Spezia, Spalletti's early career in management led him to struggling Empoli, leading the Tuscanian team on two consecutive promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A, but it was at Udinese where he really began to make an impact. In the 2004-2005 season, Spalletti guided the side to a sensational fourth-placed finish in Serie A, exceeding expectations and placing the side in the UEFA Champions League. Such success for a traditionally unexceptional side with limited resources attracted the attention of A.S. Roma. The capital side had come off a disappointing season, in which four different coaches had spells in charge of the club. Spalletti is the latest man to attempt to bring order to this chaotic side.

After an uninspiring first half of the season, he changed the team's tactics to attacking rather than defensive. On 26 February 2006, Roma broke the Serie A record for consecutive wins (11) with a 2-0 victory over SS Lazio, but at the end of the season, Roma failed to reach the 4th place, therefore failing to qulify for the UEFA Champions League, he also took Roma into the Coppa Italia final against Inter but lost it. However, Roma may quilify for this season 2006-2007 UEFA Champions League, if at least Juventus were to be guilty in the current Italian scandal (if found guilty, Juventus will directly be relegated into the second or third division), which takes Roma at least into the 4th position of the Serie-A standings of the previous 2005-2006 season.