Emiliano Mondonico

Emiliano Mondonico
Mondonico as manager of Atalanta in the 1990s
Personal information
Date of birth (1947-03-09)9 March 1947
Place of birth Rivolta d'Adda, Italy
Date of death 29 March 2018(2018-03-29) (aged 71)
Place of death Milan, Italy
Position(s) Winger
Youth career
Rivoltana
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1966–1968 Cremonese 46 (19)
1968–1970 Torino 14 (2)
1970–1971 Monza 23 (7)
1971–1972 Atalanta 2 (0)
1972–1979 Cremonese 178 (69)
Total 263 (97)
Managerial career
1982–1986 Cremonese
1986–1987 Como
1987–1990 Atalanta
1990–1994 Torino
1994–1998 Atalanta
1998–2000 Torino
2000–2001 Napoli
2001–2003 Cosenza
2003–2004 Fiorentina
2006–2007 AlbinoLeffe
2007–2009 Cremonese
2009–2011 AlbinoLeffe
2012 Novara
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Emiliano Mondonico (9 March 1947 – 29 March 2018) was an Italian professional footballer and coach. He played as a winger.

His playing career was spent mostly with Cremonese, where it began and ended. Mondonico's 31-year-long managerial career included two spells each at Cremonese, Atalanta, Torino and AlbinoLeffe. With Torino, he reached the final of the 1991–92 UEFA Cup and won the 1992–93 Coppa Italia.

Club career

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Mondonico with Torino in 1968

Mondonico grew up playing in the youth team of Rivoltana, an amateur team in his hometown of Rivolta d'Adda in the Province of Cremona.[1] In 1966 he was signed by Cremonese, with whom he played one season in Serie D and one season in Serie C.[2] In the 1968–69 season, he made his Serie A debut with Torino. After two seasons with the Granata, he moved to Monza in Serie B, before returning to Serie A with Atalanta in the 1971–72 season.[2] He later returned to Cremonese where he ended his playing career after seven seasons disputed between Serie B and Serie C in 1979.[2]

Managerial career

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Mondonico began his managerial career with the Cremonese youth team in 1979.[3] In 1982, he became manager of the senior team, and in 1984, achieved a historic promotion to Serie A with Cremonese.

In 1987, he moved to Atalanta, and guided them to the semi-finals of the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup.[4]

In 1990, he joined Torino, where he won the Mitropa Cup over Pisa and finished in fifth-place in the league during the 1990–91 season.[5] The following year, he led Torino to a historic UEFA Cup final during the 1991–92 season, lost on aggregate to AFC Ajax. After Torino were disallowed a penalty, Mondonico famously lifted up a chair into the air in a sign of protest against the referee.[6] En route to the final, Torino also overcame Real Madrid in the semi-final.[7] In the 1992–93 season, he won the 1993 Coppa Italia Final against Roma.[4]

In 1994, he returned to Atalanta for a second time, and later had a second spell with Torino as well between 1998 and 2000, before coaching Napoli during the 2000–01 season, although he was unable to help the club avoid relegation to Serie B.[2][8]

After a two-year spell with Cosenza, he later joined Fiorentina in 2003, and the following year, he led the club back into Serie A for the first time since their demotion to Serie C2, following their bankruptcy in 2002; he subsequently had a stint with AlbinoLeffe in Serie B in 2006, before returning to Cremonese the following year for a third time.[2][5][8]

In September 2009, Mondonico was appointed as head coach of AlbinoLeffe once again to replace Armando Madonna.[9] He stepped down as head coach of AlbinoLeffe on 29 January 2011 due to "serious health issues", with his assistant Daniele Fortunato taking over on an interim basis.[10][11] Two days later, his club confirmed he had undergone abdominal surgery, expecting him to recover in a few weeks time.[12][13] On 15 February, after a full recovery, Mondonico officially returned to his coaching duties at AlbinoLeffe.[14][15] He guided AlbinoLeffe to narrowly escape relegation after defeating Piacenza in the playoffs, but on 13 June he held an emotional press conference to announce that the illness had returned during the final period of the season and that he was seriously considering stepping down as a consequence.[16] On 17 June 2011, Mondonico was confirmed to have resigned from AlbinoLeffe in order to focus solely on cancer treatment; he was replaced by his assistant Daniele Fortunato, who had already undertaken the first team coaching duties during his previous sick leave.[17][18]

On 30 January 2012, Mondonico marked his Serie A comeback, replacing Attilio Tesser as head coach of Novara, who were last-placed in the Italian top flight and seven points shy of relegation safety after the first half of the season.[19] On 6 March 2012 he was sacked.[20]

Style of management

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Mondonico was a pragmatic coach, who used a counter-attacking style based on obtaining results rather than ball possession; he was a proponent of the gioco all'italiana or zona mista style, which was inspired by catenaccio, but which blended elements of man-to-man and zonal marking systems. He was known for his balanced approach in attack and defence, with his teams often defending deep behind the ball and attacking collectively. Moreover, his teams were known for their tenacity and work-rate. He also stood out for his ability to express his tactical ideas in a simple manner. His attacking play was based on the mobility of his teams' forwards. His favoured formations were the 4–4–2 and the 5–3–2 or 3–5–2, although he also used the 3–4–3; he even used the 4–2–3–1 and the 4–3–3 on occasion throughout his career. During his successful spell at Torino, he also used a 3–4–2–1 formation, with a sweeper, two man-marking centre-backs, and wing-backs in lieu of wide midfielders.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] He also used Brazilian centre-forward Walter Casagrande in a role known as the "centravanti di manovra" (which literally translates to "manoeuvring centre-forward") in Italian football jargon, a precursor to the modern false-nine role, in which he was seemingly positioned as a lone striker, but dropped deep to help his team and be involved in the build-up, rather than looking to score goals.[30] His style of coaching contrasted with that of the more offensive–minded Arrigo Sacchi and Zdeněk Zeman, who also coached in Italy during his career.[31]

Death

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Mondonico died at the age of 71 on 29 March 2018, from stomach cancer.[2][4][5][8][32]

Honours

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Emiliano Mondonico.

Manager

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Torino[5][33]

Individual

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Bibliography

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  • Elio Corbani; Pietro Serina (2007). Sesaab (ed.). Cent'anni di Atalanta (in Italian). Bergamo. ISBN 978-88-903088-0-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

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  1. ^ "È morto Emiliano Mondonico L'addio della figlia su Facebook: "Sei stato la nostra forza"" (in Italian). Il Corriere di Bergamo. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Addio "Mondo": è morto a 71 anni l'allenatore Emiliano Mondonico" (in Italian). RaiNews.it. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  3. ^ Antonio Carlino (29 March 2018). "Lutto nel calcio italiano: si è spento Emiliano Mondonico" (in Italian). Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "Ex-Atalanta and Torino boss Mondonico mourned". UEFA.com. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d Simone Cola (29 March 2018). "Addio a Emiliano Mondonico, eroe di Torino e Atalanta" (in Italian). FoxSports.it. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Mondonico alza la sedia nel 1992" (in Italian). Bergamo News. 13 June 2011. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Lutto nel mondo del Toro: è mancato Emiliano Mondonico" (in Italian). Toro.it. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  8. ^ a b c "Emiliano Mondonico dies". Football Italia. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Emiliano Mondonico nuovo allenatore dell'AlbinoLeffe" (in Italian). UC AlbinoLeffe. 28 September 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009. [dead link]
  10. ^ "A Daniele Fortunato la conduzione tecnica della prima squadra" (in Italian). UC AlbinoLeffe. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  11. ^ "Mondonico choc: "Lascio per gravi motivi di salute. Ora lotterò"" (in Italian). La Stampa. 30 January 2011. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  12. ^ "Operato Mondonico" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  13. ^ "Perfettamente riuscita l'operazione a mister Mondonico" (in Italian). UC AlbinoLeffe. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  14. ^ "Mister Mondonico torna sulla panchina dell'AlbinoLeffe" (in Italian). UC AlbinoLeffe. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  15. ^ "Mondonico: "Se avessi voluto un fratello minore, lo avrei voluto come Daniele Fortunato"" (in Italian). UC AlbinoLeffe. 15 February 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  16. ^ "Mondonico in lacrime dopo la salvezza: "Non ho sconfitto il mio vero avversario"" (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 13 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
  17. ^ "Daniele Fortunato nuovo allenatore dell'U.C. AlbinoLeffe" (in Italian). U.C. AlbinoLeffe. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  18. ^ "Mondonico deve curarsi Addio all'Albinoleffe" (in Italian). La Repubblica. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  19. ^ "TESSER LASCIA IL NOVARA, IN ARRIVO MONDONICO". Novara Calcio (in Italian). 30 January 2012. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  20. ^ "Caos Novara, Tesser torna in panchina Mondonico esonerato dopo 6 partite". Novara Calcio (in Italian). 7 March 2012. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
  21. ^ "Una sedia contro il cielo" (in Italian). L'Ultimo Uomo. 30 March 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  22. ^ Prisco, Francesco (29 March 2018). "Mondonico, l'allenatore che portò la classe operaia (del calcio) in paradiso". Il Sole 24 ORE (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  23. ^ Neale, Mark (21 May 2015). "Torino, Mondonico and the 1992 UEFA Cup -". Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  24. ^ "A Catania per riaprire i giochiIl Novara sogna l'impresa". La Stampa (in Italian). 25 February 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  25. ^ "Il pallone racconta: Emiliano Mondonico" (in Italian). AIC - Associazione Italiana Calciatori. 22 March 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  26. ^ Zapperi, Cesare (29 March 2018). "Morto Emiliano Mondonico, il mister e la malattia: la "Bestia" da fermare come l'attaccante avversario". Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  27. ^ "Mondonico e l'ultimo intervento a 4-4-2: "Catenaccio la mia fede. Ragazzi, datevi da fare"". Sportmediaset.it (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  28. ^ "Mondonico a 4-4-2: "Il futuro è catenaccio e contropiede"". Tgcom24 (in Italian). 14 June 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  29. ^ "ESCLUSIVA PIANETAGENOA1893 - EMILIANO MONDONICO: «Genoa attento, l'Atalanta medita il riscatto»" (in Italian). PianetaGenoa1893. 7 May 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  30. ^ Vella, Cristiano (3 April 2020). "Ti ricordi… Quando il Toro di Mondonico batté la Juve nel derby davanti a Kissinger". Il Fatto Quotidiano (in Italian). Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  31. ^ Mondonico, Emiliano (23 May 2012). "Io, Sacchi e il patentino: non è il corso che fa il mister". Corriere della Sera Bergamo (in Italian). Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  32. ^ Guglielmo Longhi (29 March 2018). "Addio a Emiliano Mondonico: fece grandi Toro e Atalanta" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  33. ^ "Emiliano Mondonico dies aged 71". The Belfast Telegraph. 29 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  34. ^ Moscardi, Massimo (30 November 2018). "Mondonico e Bersellini, il tributo: i due ex di Torino e Como nella "Hall of fame Granata"". Corriere di Como (in Italian). Archived from the original on 28 September 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
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