Edoardo Reja

Edoardo "Edi" Reja (born on October 10, 1945 in Lucinico, Gorizia) is an Italian football coach and former player of Slovenian origin.

Career

Edi 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; however, he 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 being defeated on the promotion playoffs to Perugia after penalty shootouts. 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 relegated. Next year he remained at Vicenza and led his team back to Serie A, but promptly relegated one more time on 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 Giampiero Ventura at Cagliari and guided the rossoblu to second place in the Serie B and promotion to Serie A, but was not confirmed. From January 2005, he is Napoli's boss, appointed at Giampiero Ventura's place (who was curiously replaced by Reja the previous year in Cagliari). He led Napoli to win Serie C1 and obtaining promotion to Serie B on 2006, and promptly guided his team to a second consecutive promotion to Serie A in 2007, which meant the Serie A comeback for Napoli since 2001.

References