Edoardo Reja

Edoardo Reja (born 10 October 1945) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is a current manager of Albania.

Edoardo Reja
Reja with Lazio in 2014
Personal information
Full name Edoardo Reja[1]
Date of birth (1945-10-10) 10 October 1945
Place of birth Lucinico, Gorizia, Italy
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Albania (manager)
Youth career
1961 San Lorenzo di Mossa
1961–1963 SPAL
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1963–1968 SPAL 70 (2)
1968–1973 Palermo 124 (1)
1973–1976 Alessandria 76 (1)
1976–1977 Benevento 7 (0)
Total 277 (4)
Teams managed
1979–1980 Molinella
1980–1981 Monselice
1981–1982 Pordenone
1982–1983 Monselice
1983–1984 Pro Gorizia
1984–1985 Treviso
1985–1986 Mestre
1986–1987 Varese
1987–1989 Pescara (youth team)
1989–1990 Pescara
1990–1992 Cosenza
1992–1993 Verona
1993–1994 Bologna
1994–1995 Lecce
1996–1997 Brescia
1997–1998 Torino
1998–2001 Vicenza
2001–2002 Genoa
2003 Catania
2003–2004 Cagliari
2005–2009 Napoli
2009–2010 Hajduk Split
2010–2012 Lazio
2014 Lazio
2015–2016 Atalanta
2019– Albania
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

After a career as a midfielder spent mostly with SPAL and Palermo, he began working as a manager. He won four promotions from Serie B, including as champions with Brescia (1997) and Vicenza (2000), as well as Cagliari (2004) and Napoli (2007).

Reja managed Vicenza, Napoli, Lazio and Atalanta in Serie A.

Playing career

Reja began his career with the SPAL 1907 youth squad, coached by Paolo Mazza, playing in midfield alongside lifelong friend Fabio Capello, and other notable players such as Louis Pasetti and Adriano Zanier. Together, they helped the team win the 1963–64 Campionato Nazionale Primavera. In 1965, Reja joined Capello in Serie A, in the SPAL 1907 first team, earning an appearance with the Italian U-23 squad. Reja played for two more teams, U.S. Città di Palermo and Alessandria in a long career that lasted until 1975, playing a total of 124 Serie A matches.[2]

Coaching career

Early career

Reja started his coaching career in 1979 serving as boss of Serie D team Molinella. Next year he then coached Monselice of Serie C2. In 1989, he coached his first Serie B team, Pescara, of which he was previously the youth squad boss. He successively gained good successes in the same league with Cosenza, Lecce and Brescia, where he won the championship. In fact, he launched the career of notable footballer Andrea Pirlo at Brescia, where Pirlo was a regular member of the squad. However, Reja opted to give up the opportunity to coach Brescia in Serie A, preferring to accept an offer from Torino, another Serie B team, where he then missed promotion defeated in the promotion playoffs to Perugia after a penalty shootout.

Serie A debut at Vicenza, Genoa, Catania and Cagliari

During the 1998–1999 season, he was appointed coach of Serie A club Vicenza, thus making his debut in a top division team, but was unable to save the team from relegation. Next year he remained at Vicenza and led his team back to Serie A, but promptly relegated one more time in 2001. In 2001–2002, he replaced Franco Scoglio at the helm of Genoa (Serie B), but to be fired himself only three months later. On 2002–2003, he was appointed in the mid-season by Catania boss Luciano Gaucci to replace John Toshack. On November 2003, he replaced Gian Piero Ventura at Cagliari and guided the rossoblu to second place in the Serie B and promotion to Serie A, but was not confirmed.

Napoli

In January 2005, Reja was appointed as the manager of Napoli, again after Ventura's dismissal.[3] He led Napoli to win Serie C1, obtaining promotion to Serie B in 2006, then a second consecutive promotion to Serie A in 2007 – returning the Naples team to the top flight for the first time since 2001.

In his first Serie A campaign with Napoli, Reja guided them to an Intertoto Cup qualification spot, and was confirmed at the helm of Napoli in the 2008–09 Serie A season. He managed to lead the Partenopei to the second qualification round of the UEFA Cup, where they were defeated by S.L. Benfica. Napoli rose up to first place in the Serie A table in the first half of the season. After two points in nine games caused the team to fall into the bottom half, Reja was sacked on 10 March 2009, following a 0–2 home loss to Lazio, and replaced by former Italian team boss Roberto Donadoni.[4][5]

Lazio

After a short successful spell as head coach of Croatian side Hajduk Split from August 2009 to February 2010, Reja opted to quit his job in Split in order to become the new manager of S.S. Lazio.[6] He was unveiled as the new Lazio head coach the following day, replacing Davide Ballardini.[7] He turned the fortunes of a club in dismay, guiding it out of the relegation zone and into a mid-table finish in the season.

The 2010–11 season for Lazio started in an astonishing way, with the team surprisingly heading Serie A with a four-point advantage to runners-up Inter after nine games, thanks to Reja's abilities in relaunching players such as Mauro Zárate, Cristian Ledesma and Stefano Mauri, as well as introducing new key signings such as Brazilian international Hernanes. On 17 May 2012 he resigned from the job, despite the president's pleas for him to stay on.[8]

After the sacking of Vladimir Petković, Reja returned to Lazio for a second spell on 4 January 2014, completing the season in ninth place. On 12 June 2014, he resigned from his role, with Stefano Pioli appointed as his replacement the same day.[9]

Atalanta

Reja was appointed trainer of Atalanta on 4 March 2015 with the team three points above the relegation zone after the dismissal of Stefano Colantuono.[10] His time at the club ended in May 2016, having saved them twice from relegation.[11]

Albania

On 17 April 2019, Albania signed Reja to a seven-month contract after fellow Italian Christian Panucci was dismissed the previous month.[12]

Personal life

Reja was born in the village of Lucinico (Slovene: Ločnik), now a suburb of Gorizia (Slovene: Gorica), near the border between Italy and Slovenia. His father was a Slovenian from the village of Vipolže in Brda, Slovenia, while his mother was Friulian.[13][14][15][16] He is fluent in Italian, Slovenian, and Friulan.[13][17][18] However, his levels of fluency vary: while he is able to speak the standard form of Italian, he only speaks a regional variety of Slovenian, strongly influenced by his native Brda dialect.[19]

He is close friends with Fabio Capello.[20] Reja has been married to his wife Livia since 1969; he met his wife while rooming with Capello in Ferrara, at the time playing for SPAL 1907.[21]

Honours

Player

SPAL 1907

U.S. Alessandria Calcio 1912

Manager

Brescia

Vicenza

Napoli

Managerial statistics
As of Match played 18 November 2020
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Albania 17 April 2019 present 15 7 3 5 046.67

References
  1. "Comunicato Ufficiale N. 214" [Official Press Release No. 214] (PDF) (in Italian). Lega Serie A. 26 April 2016. p. 5. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  2. "I friulani più conosciuti" (in Italian). Totalfootball. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
  3. "Napoli, esonerato Ventura la panchina a Eddy Reja" [Napoli, Ventura sacked, Eddy Reja on the bench]. La Repubblica (in Italian). 18 January 2005. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  4. "Roberto Donadoni nuovo tecnico azzurro" (in Italian). SSC Napoli. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
  5. "Donadoni replaces Reja at Napoli helm". UEFA. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  6. "Reja: Vratit ću Hajduk gdje mu je mjesto!" (in Croatian). HNK Hajduk. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
  7. "Calcio, Lazio: esonerato Ballardini, squadra a Reja" (in Italian). Reuters Italia. 10 February 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2010.
  8. "Reja leaves Lazio". Sky Sports. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  9. "Edy Reja saluta la Lazio" [Edy Reja says goodbye to Lazio] (in Italian). SS Lazio. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  10. "COMUNICATO ATALANTA B.C." Archived from the original on 6 March 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  11. Bassi, Luca (18 May 2016). "Due salvezze e tanto bel gioco: Atalanta, è giusto non-confermare Reja?" [Two survivals and such beautiful play: Atalanta, is it fair to not confirm Reja?] (in Italian). Bergamo Today. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  12. "Edoardo Reja, trajneri i ri i Shqipërisë" [Edoardo Reja, new coach of Albania] (in Albanian). Albanian Football Association. 17 April 2019.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. "La Slovenia cerca Reja come c.t" (in Italian). gazzetta.it. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  15. "Furlanija zakladnica najboljših trenerjev" (in Slovenian). rtvslo.si. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  16. "Trener Hajduka: Nisam Isus, ne očekujte čuda" (in Croatian). tportal.hr. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  17. Ivica Medo (18 August 2009). "Video: Reja predstavljen na Poljudu: Menadžeri mi neće sastavljati momčad" [Video: Reja presented at Poljud: Managers will not compose my team] (in Croatian). Nacional (weekly). Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  18. "Capello: Pri Edyju Reji se govori slovensko" (in Slovenian). delo.si. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  19. "Edi Reja: Slovenski selektor, zakaj pa ne? (video)".
  20. http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/lazio-need-rejas-resolve. The National. 14 Feb. 2010. Retrieved on 28 July. 2012.
  21. Capello: Portrait of A Winner. Gabrielle Marcotti
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