Walter Mazzarri Biography

Walter Mazzarri, born 1 October 1961 in San Vincenzo, Italy, is an Italian football coach and former footballer, who played as a midfielder for many Italian teams. As a head coach, he has managed many clubs in Italy and England. Playing as a midfielder, Mazzarri started learning football in the youth ranks of AC Fiorentina. In 1981, Mazzarri played his professional debut for Pescara Calcio in Serie B.

For a short time, he played in Serie A for Cagliari Calcio until he was sold to AC Reggiana. Mazzarri's lengthiest spell was with FC Empoli, in which he also played a part in the Tuscan side's first-ever promotion to the top flight. Following some experience with smaller teams, the Italian was part of Acireale Calcio's first promotion to Serie B in 1993. In 1995, he finished his career with Sassari Torres.

His coaching career started in the coaching staff of Bologna. In 1998, he was introduced as assistant coach to Renzo Ulivieri. However, it was during his time as coach of Sampdoria that Mazzarri first came to prominence, leading the team to a fine league finish and taking the club to the Coppa Italia final, which was lost to SS Lazio on penalties. Mazzarri took over as Napoli head coach on 6 October 2009 from the recently sacked Roberto Donadoni.

After four successful years of coaching Napoli, on 25 May 2013, Walter Mazzarri took over FC Internazionale Milano following the dismissal of Andrea Stramaccioni. His stint with Inter was not productive and he was sacked on 14 of November of 2014, after an uneven start to the season. He then coached Watford and Torino and is currently unemployed.

All You Need to Know About Walter Mazzarri Biography

He has more than 400 appearances on the bench in the first two divisions of the Italian league (463 in Serie A) and made it to the two Coppa Italia finals, with one win and one loss.

Walter Mazzarri Information

Now that we know him better, in this section of

Walter Mazzarri biography

, we will share some general information about him such as

Walter Mazzarri nationality

to let you know him even more.

Walter Mazzarri Bio

• Full Name: Walter Mazzarri

• Nickname: N/A

• Profession: Professional Footballer

Walter Mazzarri Physical Stats

• Weight: 77 Kg

• Height: 1.80 m

• Eye Color: Blue

• Hair Color: Brown

Walter Mazzarri Football Information

• Position: Midfielder

• Jersey Number: 10

• Professional Debut: 1981

Walter Mazzarri Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 1 October 1961

• Birth Place: San Vincenzo, Italy

• Zodiac Sign: Libra

• Nationality: Italian

In this section of

Walter Mazzarri biography

stay tuned as we want to share some information about

Walter Mazzarri childhood

and more.

Walter Mazzarri Early Life

Although Walter Mazzarri was a technically talented player, he failed to make the leap to the top flight. He started out with AC Fiorentina's youth team, before being sent on loan to Pescara Calcio for the 1981-1982 season in Serie B where he played 26 matches and scored 4 goals. The team finished 20th in the league and was relegated.

Subsequently, he went to Cagliari Calcio for the 1982-1983 season, where he debuted in Serie A. After appearing four times for the Sardinian club, he moved to AC Reggiana in Serie B, again in 1982, although the team finished 17th and was relegated to Serie C1.

In the 1983-1984 season, he returned to AC Fiorentina, his formative club, but he immediately transferred to neighbouring Empoli FC in Serie B. There he stayed for five years, securing the club's first promotion to the top flight in the 1985-1986 season. After two years in Serie A, the team went down to Serie B in the 1987-1988 season. For the Tuscan team, Mazzarri played 91 matches and scored 4 goals.

Following the relegation, Walter Mazzarri joined Licata Calcio, who had just been promoted to Serie B for the first time in their history. He only played 8 games and the team finished 9th. In the following season, 1989-1990, he joined Modena FC in Serie C1. The Emilia-Romagna side won their group and climbed to Serie B with the best defensive record of Italian professional clubs: 9 goals conceded. Mazzarri played 21 games and failed to score a goal.

Mazzarri only stayed at Modena FC for one season and signed for AS Nola, which was promoted to Serie C1, for the 1990-1991 season. The team would finish 13th and Mazzarri would play 30 games for 3 goals. The next season he signed for FC Esperia Viareggio in Serie C2 with whom he finished 6th, making only 11 appearances.

He then moved to AS Acireale in 1992-1993 in Serie C1. Perugia Calcio finished 2nd in the league, despite winning their play-off match against AS Acireale (2-1). The President of

Calcio allegedly sold a horse to a referee for a large bribe. As a result, AS Acireale was promoted to Serie B for the first time in their history. Mazzarri stayed another season: the team finished 16th but escaped relegation after a play-off against Pisa Calcio (0-0, 4-3 on penalties, one of which was converted by Mazzarri).

The 1994-1995 season saw him sign for ASD Torres Calcio in Serie C2. In two seasons with AS Acireale he played 32 matches and scored 1 goal. At the end of the 1994-1995 season, Walter Mazzarri decided to hang up his boots at the age of 33.

Walter Mazzarri Profile

He started his coaching career only one year later, in the 1996-97 season, when he was appointed assistant coach to Renzo Ulivieri at Bologna FC in Serie A. He worked with him for three years, two of which were at Bologna and one at SSC Napoli in Serie B. During the 1999-2000 season, he was in charge of the youth team at Bologna FC for two years.

After learning a great deal in the process, he took the plunge and signed for his former club AS Acireale in Serie C2 for the 2001-02 season, where he finished 12th in his group. He remained only one year and signed for the 2002-03 season at AC Pistoiese, which had just been relegated to Serie C1.

AC Pistoiese

On 18 August 2002, Mazzarri managed his first match as the head coach of AC Pistoiese in Group 4 of Coppa Italia, where his team won 2-1 against Empoli. His team lost the next two matches of the Coppa Italia group stage to Cagliari Calcio and

and failed to qualify for the second round after finishing third in their group.

He sat on AC Pistoiese’s bench in Serie C Group A for the first time on 7 September 2002, where his team lost 1-0 to AC Prato. Things started to improve in the league for them from next week where they won the home match against Varese Calcio 2-1.

That season, his team’s performances were mixed and they only achieved to finish 10th in the league table with 11 wins, 11 draws and 12 defeats, thus, failing to qualify for the play-offs. In this section of

Walter Mazzarri biography

stay tuned as we want to share some information about his Livorno career.

AS Livorno

In 2003-04, he was signed by Tuscany-based AS Livorno Calcio in Serie B1, his home town: that was his first season in the top flight. His first season in the top flight saw the arrival of local boy Cristiano Lucarelli.

Like the previous season, his first match was in the group stage of Coppa Italia, where after a 1-1 draw versus Cesena FC and a 0-3 loss against Genoa CFC, they failed to advance to the second round of the cup competition.

Mazzarri made a Serie B debut to remember when his side won 0-1 against Genoa, which was good revenge for their previous week’s defeat against the same club. After two draws and one defeat against US Triestina, Livorno started a three-match winning streak in the league and defeated US Salernitana 1919, Ascoli Calcio and

.

Following a mixed first half of the season, the team had an excellent second half and fought for promotion. In the end, the team finished third and returned to Serie A after 55 years. Walter Mazzarri was grateful to his goal-scoring duo of Cristiano Lucarelli and Igor Protti, who together scored 53 goals in an exceptionally large 24-team league, and to his young talent and future pillar of the Italian national team's central defence, Giorgio Chiellini.

Mazzarri, despite this success, left the club immediately after the promotion and signed for

Calcio in Serie A.

Reggina

On 12 September 2004, Walter Mazzari debuted on Serie A and Reggina bench in a goalless draw against Udinese at home. Four days later, they suffered a heavy 4-1 loss against Atalanta BC in the second round of

, which they were knocked out of the competition after a 2-3 defeat at home against

in the second leg.

Walter Mazzari and Reggina’s first win in the league came on 22 September 2004, where they managed to defeat AS Livorno 2-1 at home, the team where he was a manager the previous season. From next week, Mazzarri’s side started a poor streak, where they only had a 0-0 draw against Chievo Verona and lost the other five matches.

To end that losing streak, Reggina and Mazzarri were able to defeat the Juventus team at home with a score of 2-1. In that match, Giuseppe Colucci scored the first goal for Reggina in the 13th minute, however, a minute later it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic who equalized the match. Marco Zamboni scored another goal for the team from a direct kick and they managed to defend that score.

Two weeks later, Mazzarri and Reggina managed to earn another surprise victory, this time against another Italian giant, AS Roma, with a goal from the Italian forward Emiliano Bonazzoli. They also won their next match against Atalanta, somehow getting the revenge of their Coppa Italia elimination.

During his first season, 2004-05, he guided the team to 10th place in the league, which was the best in its history, thus saving the newly promoted club from relegation. In a total of 38 league matches, Reggina had 10 wins, 14 draws and 14 defeats, clinching a total of 44 points.

The next season started with their 1-2 victory against FC Giugliano in the first round of Coppa Italia. However, eight days later, on 15 August 2005, they were knocked out of the competition with a 1-0 loss against Napoli.

On 28 August 2005, Reggina started the new Serie A season with a disappointing 0-3 loss against AS Roma at home. That season, Reggina made a nightmare start to the Serie A with four straight defeats against Roma,

, Chievo Verona and Palermo. Finally, it was on 25 September 2005 that Mazzarri managed to win his first match in the new season against Udinese.

That season, the team finished in 12th position with 41 points and Mazzarri was once again successful in saving the team in the highest tier of Italian football. But the corruption scandals that hit the Italian league in the summer of 2006 left Reggina Calcio in a difficult position: their president, Lillo Foti, had been accused by the courts of having participated in the control of the appointment of referees during the previous season. As a result, the club was fined 15 penalty points from the 2006-07 season, which were reduced to 11 points on appeal.

Reggina started the 2006-07 season with three wins in Coppa Italia, against Pro Vasto, US Cremonese and FC Crotone, respectively, and as a result, they made it to the Round of 16, to play against Chievo Verona. After two legs, they finished 3-3, but the Chievo team managed to advance to the next round of Coppa Italia thanks to the away goals rule.

In the opening match of Serie A, they lost 4-3 against Palermo. However, they won their second match against Cagliari Calcio the following week. On 6 October 2006, Mazzarri was able to clinch a 1-0 home victory against AS Roma.

Mazzarri managed to save the club on the last day of the season with a 2-0 victory over AC Milan at the Stadio San Siro and they finished 14th in the league with 40 points. If not for the penalty, the team would have qualified for the Intertoto Cup. Walter Mazzarri was made an honorary citizen of Reggio Calabria on 30 May 2007.

In this section of Walter Mazzarri biography stay tuned as we want to share some information about his Sampdoria career.

Sampdoria

In early summer 2007, following three successful seasons at Reggina Calcio, Walter Mazzarri signed for UC Sampdoria, again in

. He replaced Walter Novellino, who had spent five years on the bench. The team was strengthened by the return of the experienced Vincenzo Montella and, more importantly, the fantastic Antonio Cassano, who was in search of a new challenge after two unsuccessful seasons at Real Madrid CF.

They qualified for the UEFA Cup after winning two matches against the Bulgarian side Cherno More Varn but were knocked out by Danish side AaB Alborg in the first round before the group stage (2-2, 0-0).

On 26 August 2007, Sampdoria managed to win their first Serie A match of the season in Mazzarri’s debut match, with a score of 1-2 against Siena. For the next five matches, they struggled to win again and finally it was on the 6th matchday that they win 3-0 their game against Atalanta BC.

Between 9 March and 6 April 2008, Mazzarri’s team managed to win five of their six matches in Serie A. In Coppa Italia, Sampdoria made it to the quarter-finals, where they lost 2-1 against AS Roma on aggregate.

In the league, the team showed a very high level of play, particularly at home, and were still in contention for a place in the UEFA Champions League with a month to go. UC Sampdoria finally finished the season in 6th place, earning a direct place in the UEFA Cup.

However, the following season was much more complicated in the league, as the team only finished 13th. In the UEFA Cup, the team got through the group stage, coming third behind Standard Liege and VfB Stuttgart before being eliminated in the round of 16 by Ukrainian Metalist Kharkiv (0-1, 0-2).

The biggest regret of the season was the Italian Cup final lost on penalties to Lazio (1-1) following Hugo Campagnaro's mistake. Mazzarri announced on the last day of the season that he would not be on the UC Sampdoria bench the following season, by mutual agreement with the club's management.

Napoli

On 6 October 2009, after the first 7 league games, he was appointed as the new coach of

and replaced the dismissed Roberto Donadoni. Mazzarri also returned in this way to the Neapolitan bench, 11 years after his experience as an assistant coach for one year (1998-1999) with Renzo Ulivieri.

He debuted with the Azzurri team on 18 October in the match at the San Paolo against Bologna, winning 2-1 in a comeback. He achieved his 200th bench in Serie A on 20 December 2009 in Napoli-Chievo 2-0, which was his tenth consecutive undefeated result.

Under his guide, the club climbed in the standings closing the first half of the season in third place, something that had not happened for 18 years. His first defeat in an official match was in the Coppa Italia against Juventus (3-0 for the Bianconeri in Turin), stopping 13 games without defeats between league and cup.

The first loss in the league was in the away game against Udinese, on February 7, 2010 (3-1 for Udinese). The series of undefeated results of Naples stopped at 15 (8 wins, 7 draws), second only to the 16 consecutive unbeaten results obtained in 1989-1990 when they won the second Scudetto. With the victory against Chievo in Verona (1-2) on 2 May 2010, he took the Napoli to Europa League qualification with two games to spare and ended the season in sixth place with 59 points.

The next season started by passing the qualifying round for the 2010-2011 Europa League group stage by defeating Elfsborg (1-0 in Naples, 0-2 in Sweden). He debuted in the league against Fiorentina at the Artemio Franchi stadium with a 1-1 draw. They also won 2-0 against Roma after thirteen years of negative results with the Giallorossi.

In the Europa League, they advanced from the group stage but were eliminated by Villarreal. After a 1-1 draw with Inter in the league on 15 May 2011, Napoli finished third and qualified for the Champions League after 21 years. He was confirmed as Napoli's coach for the 2011-2012 season on 23 May, following a settlement with the president Aurelio De Laurentiis.

On 25 August 2011, with Napoli in the fourth tier of the Champions League draw, the Azzurri were drawn in a group with Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Villarreal. On 14 September 2011, he played his first Champions League match against Roberto Mancini's Manchester City, which ended 1-1.

In the European competition, Napoli qualified for the next round thanks to a 2-0 win at Villarreal in the last game of the group, where they finished in second place behind Bayern Munich. The Azzurri met Chelsea in the round of 16, where they beat them 3-1 in the first leg in Naples, only to lose in London 4-1 after extra time, thus exiting the competition.

Napoli experienced bad times in the league and struggled to finish fifth, which ruled them out of the next Champions League and took them to the 2012-2013 Europa League play-offs. However, this was ultimately avoided as on 20 May 2012 Napoli defeated Juventus 2-0 in the Coppa Italia final, taking the cup back to the foot of Vesuvius after 25 years. It was Mazzarri's first trophy as a coach.

In the 2012-2013 season, having lost the Italian Super Cup match in Beijing to Juventus, Mazzarri guided Napoli to second place in the league with 78 points, and their second direct qualification to the UEFA Champions League group stage in three seasons, improving their record for points. He announced the end of his Neapolitan experience on 19 May 2013, with the league over and his contract expiring.

Inter Milan

He was appointed as

manager on 24 May 2013 on a two-year deal. In his first match as Inter manager, they won 4-0 against AS Cittadella in the third round of Coppa Italia. A week later, they won 2-0 against Genoa in their first Serie A match of the season.

Their first defeat of the season came on the 7th matchday of Serie A, where they suffered a heavy 0-3 loss at home against AS Roma. Following that match, Inter were unbeaten for 9 matches in Serie A and Coppa Italia, until they lost 4-2 to Mazzarri’s former club Napoli.

Mazzarri led the Nerazzurri to a fifth-place finish in the 2013-2014 season and qualified for the Europa League. In Coppa Italia, they were knocked out by Udinese Calcio in the Round of 16. From a statistical point of view, the Milanese team scored the most away goals, with 35.

The 2014-15 season started for Inter Milan with two victories against Stjarnan Gardabaer in the Qualifying Round of the Europa League. They were drawn alongside AS Saint-Étienne, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Qarabağ FK.

They started the Serie A with a goalless draw against Torino FC, before crushing US Sassuolo with a 7-0 victory at home in the next week.

During the 2014-15 season, Mazzarri's results were negative (with three defeats in Serie A) and his relationship with the fans deteriorated. He was relieved of his duties for the first time in his career on 14 November to be replaced by Roberto Mancini.

Watford

He signed with Premier League club

on 21 May 2016. He made his debut in the Premier League on 13 August 2016, in a 1-1 draw against Southampton. With two difficult challenges against Chelsea which resulted in two consecutive defeats, Mazzarri had not the start he has wished for as the manager of Watford.

However, with a 2-4 away win against West Ham United and more importantly a 3-1 win against Manchester United, he was able to turn things around. In League Cup, they were eliminated after the 1-2 defeat against Gillingham FC.

In FA Cup, they won their first match with a score of 2-0 against Burton Albion at home and advanced to the fourth round, where they played away against Millwall FC, where they lost 1-0 and knocked out of the competition.

In the 2016-17

he managed to save the club from relegation by finishing in 17th place with 40 points but terminated his relationship with the club at the end of the season (as announced even before the end of the tournament).

Torino

He came back to

in January 2018, joining Torino to replace the dismissed Siniša Mihajlović. After he started his tenure with 7 points in 3 games, the club ended their first year in Serie A in 10th place, with a tally of 54 points in 38 games.

During the 2018-2019 season, Torino finished in 7th place, only three points behind the Europa League, after struggling to qualify for the UEFA

until the 35th matchday of the season. Taking advantage of the exclusion of AC Milan from the European competition for violation of the rules of financial fair play, the Torino entered the second qualifying round of the Europa League but were unable to reach the group stage, leaving the competition at the hands of Wolverhampton.

Their season continued disappointingly: following three consecutive defeats in the league and Coppa Italia, among them the 0-7 home defeat against Atalanta and the 4-0 away defeat against Lecce, on February 4 the club and Mazzarri decided to terminate their contract, with the team in twelfth place after twenty-two games.

In this section of Walter Mazzarri biography stay tuned as we want to share some information about his coaching style.

Style of Play

He normally uses a 3-5-2 formation, whose success depends above all on the performance of the outside midfielders. The two players contribute both defensively (by dropping back when the ball is in the opponent's possession, thereby transforming the formation into a 5-3-2) and offensively, often ending up flanking the two forwards (or the centre forward, if a 3-5-1-1 is used) or scoring goals.

Reception

During his early days as a coach, where he was playing beautiful football with the likes of Reggina and Sampdoria, everyone was talking about the birth of another great Italian coach. With his performance in the Napoli team, especially during his first two years, he got more admirers between both fans and critics. However, since joining Inter and his disappointing performance there, he is no longer considered among modern and top football coaches.

Walter Mazzarri outside Football

After resigning from Torino, Mazzarri has more spare time and other than studying to improve his football, he has also entered the entrepreneurship scene as he explains in an interview: "I'm a manager, I've built luxury villas that I rent out to high-end clients. I wanted to measure myself with the economy, exploiting the teachings of important entrepreneurs who I had as presidents: Cairo and De Laurentiis, in particular. I've already hosted VIPs and celebrities. All of them were enthusiastic. When I worked as Ulivieri's assistant and at Napoli he introduced me to Ferlaino, he said: president, my assistant is an economist and a good technician. And I directed both of them towards investments.”

Walter Mazzarri Personal Life

In this section of Walter Mazzarri biography, we will take a look into his personal life and share some info about

Walter Mazzarri life story

and

Walter Mazzarri religion

.

Family, Children and Relationships

Mazzarri is originally from San Vincenzo, a small town of about 7,000 souls in the province of Livorno. This is where his mother Edda still lives, while his brother Stefano is one of the directors of the Piombino steelworks. His father Alberto died in 2006. Walter comes from a wealthy family that owned a small business.

When he was playing at Empoli in the 1980s, Mazzari met Daniela, his wife, and their marriage resulted in the birth of their son Gabriele. Walter has always been a serious, reliable and devoted husband, dedicated to his family and not one to allow himself to have any extravagances or sudden changes of heart.

Philanthropy

At the time of writing this article, there aren’t any reports on media regarding the charity activities of Italian coach Walter Mazzarri.

Legal Issues

So far, we haven’t heard of any legal issues or disputes about Walter Mazzarri on media.

Walter Mazzarri Career Statistics

In this section of Walter Mazzarri biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

During his playing career, which was fully spent in Italy, he has played a total of 244 league matches for many Italian clubs and scored 13 goals. For five years between 1983 and 1988, he played a total of 91 matches for Empoli.

Managerial

During his around 20 years old coaching career, he has managed many clubs in 710 matches as of 2 February 2020 and with 280 wins, 212 draws and 218 defeats he has a win ratio of 39.44 percent.

Walter Mazzarri Honors

Mazzarri’s only achievement as a manager was the 2011-12 Coppa Italia he won with Napoli. He has also finished runner-up in the competition with Sampdoria.  With Napoli, he was also runner-up in Supercoppa Italiana and the Serie A.

In 2012, he managed to win the Enzo Bearzot Award, which is given to the best Italian manager each year by a jury of representatives of big Italian sports newspapers.

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