Fabio Capello, England Manager  England Manager, Fabio Capello

England manager - Fabio Capello

Fabio Capello, the current England manager, was born in Pieris, San Canzian d'Isonzo, Gorizia in Northern Italy on 18th June 1946. Prior to embarking on a highly successful managerial career Fabio Capello spent 15 years as a professional footballer, the first club he played for was SPAL where he made his debut in 1964 as a midfielder. In 1967, after three seasons with SPAL, Fabio Capello moved to Italy's capital Rome where he played for Roma and enjoyed his first taste of success winning the 1969 Italian Cup. The season following this success Fabio Capello was sold to Juventus where he cemented his playing career in a team that became Italian football's dominant force of the 1970's. With Juventus Fabio Capello won three Italian Serie A titles, it was also during this period that he made his debut for the Italian national team, in all playing thirty two times for his country from 1972 to 1976. In 1976 Fabio Capello moved to AC MIlan where he played out his career until his retirement in 1980.

Fabio Capello followed his playing career with a spell as a football pundit on Italian television before moving into football management. His first managerial role came with AC Milan where he was appointed manager in 1991. At this time Silvio Berlusconi owned the AC MIlan club which boasted such greats as Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Paulo Maldini and Fabio Capello led them to four Serie A titles and one Champions League trophy between 1991 and 1996. In 1996 Fabio Capello's contract ended at AC Milan and he moved over to manage Real Madrid where he stayed for only a year but in that time he won the 1997 La Liga title. His short time at Real Madrid was followed by an equally brief return to AC MIlan before heading south to the capital in 1999 and the job of managing Roma. In 2001 Fabio Capello led Roma to their first Serie A title for 18 years however in the following years he fell out with star striker Francesco Totti and was accused of sabotaging the club by engineering the departure of a number of key players. The Roma fans despised Fabio Capello by the time he left the club in 2004 at the end of his contract.

In 2004 Fabio Capello returned to Juventus, as manager, and led the club to the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles, however, the club were stripped of the latter following the well publicised match fixing scandal which also saw the club relegated to Serie B and docked points. Although Fabio Capello was never implicated in the scandal he resigned from the club in 2006 and soon after was unveiled as the new manager of Real Madrid. His second stint at the Spanish club was not without controversy mainly due to Fabio Capello's defensive style of play and his refusal to play some of the clubs star players, in particular David Beckham and Ronaldo. Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League early and falling behind bitter rivals Barcelona when Fabio Capello recalled David Beckham, a move which seemed to turn the fortunes of the club around and they went on to win the La Liga title. Despite this success Fabio Capello was sacked by Real Madrid in June 2007 due to his style of play, he briefly returned to tv punditry before being awarded the England managers job in December 2007.