Marco Simone (; born 7 January 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

. As a player, he was a striker and winger. He most prominently played for

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, with whom he won four

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

championships and two

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

titles, as well as in France's

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

for Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco. At international level, Simone played four games for the Italy national team. As a manager, Simone has coached Monaco,

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

, Laval and Châteauroux. He also had brief spells in Switzerland, Tunisia, Thailand and Morocco.

Club career

Early career

Simone was born in Castellanza. He debuted in

for Como on 11 January 1987. After a few appearances in the top-flight Serie A, he was put on loan at Virescit Boccaleone in the secondary Serie C1 league. He scored 15 goals for Virescit in the 1987–88 season, and finished as top scorer of the Serie C1 league. He returned to Como for the 1988–89 Serie A season, in which he scored 6 goals. Como finished dead last in the tournament, and was relegated to

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

AC Milan

In the summer of 1989, Simone was brought into the squad of third-place finishers AC Milan by manager Arrigo Sacchi. His stay at Milan would be long and successful, as he won the 1990 European Cup under manager Sacchi, as well as four Serie A titles in five years from 1992 to 1996 and the 1994

under the management of Fabio Capello. His best season for AC Milan came during the 1994–95 Serie A season, where he scored 17 goals in 30 games, as well as 4 in the Champions League, for a total of 21 goals in all competitions, as Milan reached the 1995 UEFA Champions League Final, only to be defeated by Ajax. He also managed 11 goals in all competitions during the 1995–96 season, 8 of which came in

, finishing as the club's second highest goalscorer behind George Weah as Milan won the Serie A title. Despite competing for the attacking spots at Milan with the three

FIFA World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representative ...

award winners Marco van Basten (1992), Roberto Baggio (1993) and George Weah (1995) (as well as the presence of Ruud Gullit, Dejan Savićević, Daniele Massaro,

Paolo Di Canio Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager. During his playing career he made over 500 league appearances and scored over one hundred goals as a Forward (association football), forward. He primari ...

, Jean-Pierre Papin, Christophe Dugarry, and Brian Laudrup), he scored a total of 74 goals in 245 games in all competitions for Milan.

Later career in France, Monaco and return to Italy

In 1997, Simone moved abroad to play for French club Paris Saint-Germain, with whom he won both domestic cups in his first season. He scored in both the Coupe de la Ligue final and the Coupe de France final against

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

and Lens respectively. He transferred to Monaco in 1999. He scored 21 goals and made 15 assists in 34 games during the 1999–2000 season, and helped Monaco win the

championship in 2000. He returned to Milan for parts of the 2001–02 Serie A season, scoring his last goal with the Rossoneri in Coppa Italia against Lazio in 2002. He returned to Monaco, but rarely played during the 2002–03 Ligue 1 season. Following an unsuccessful season playing for Nice, he retired from football in 2004, at the age of 35. He made a short come-back as he played a single game for Serie C2 club Legnano in 2005.

International career

During his time with Milan, Simone also made his senior debut for the Italy national team on 19 December 1992, under then national team manager Arrigo Sacchi, in a 2–1 away win in a 1994 World Cup qualifier against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

. He would go on to play four games in total for the national team between 1992 and 1996, but did not score any goals for Italy.

Style of play

Simone was a diminutive forward, gifted with pace, good movement, an eye for goal, and excellent technique. He was capable of playing in several attacking positions, and was best used as a second striker, due to his small stature and slender physical build, although he was also capable of playing in a central role as a main striker, or even as a winger.

Managerial career

Monaco

On 12 September 2011, Simone got his first managerial job at former club Monaco, succeeding Laurent Banide at a club 17th in

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

. He was fired at the end of the season with the club having finished 8th and not met their aim of instant promotion, despite the investment of billionaire new owner Dmitry Rybolovlev.

Lausanne-Sport

Simone became Technical Director at Lausanne-Sport of the Swiss Challenge League in November 2013, and 11 months later he replaced Francesco Gabriele as manager. He was sacked on 24 March 2015 with the team in seventh having earned one point from six games in the calendar year.

Tours and Laval

On 25 June 2015, Simone returned to France's second tier with

Tours FC Tours Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tours (), was a football club based in Tours, France. Formed in 1919, the club adopted the name Tours FC in 1951 after several other name changes. The club was dissolved on 26 February 2025 d ...

. He finished the season in 9th, and quit despite having a year left on his contract, due to disputes with the board. Still in the same league, Simone was hired at 18th-placed Laval on 8 November 2016. The following 11 April he was dismissed, with the team in last position.

Club Africain

In July 2017, Simone joined Club Africain in Tunisia. Four months into a two-year contract, he quit the 12th-placed club. Through

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, he sued the club for the remainder of his salary, and won €630,000 in July 2019. In April 2018 he was one of 77 applicants for the vacant Cameroon national team job.

Ratchaburi Mitr Phol and Mohammédia

Simone became manager of the Thai Premier League's Ratchaburi Mitr Phol F.C. on 25 March 2019. He left in July, with a record of eight wins from 18 games, as he said he had an offer from a European club. He instead joined SCC Mohammédia in Morocco's Botola 2. Within another four months, he was dismissed despite the team leading the league, and refused a backroom job with the club.

Châteauroux

On 10 March 2021, Simone became the manager of

club

Châteauroux Châteauroux ( ; ; ) is the capital city of the French department of Indre, central France and the second-largest town in the province of Berry, after Bourges. Its residents are called ''Castelroussins'' () in French. Climate Châteauroux te ...

. He was appointed following the takeover by Saudi prince Abdullah bin Musa'ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his United World Group. Châteauroux was in last place at the time he was hired, and remained in that position until the end of the season, getting relegated to the third-tier

Championnat National The Championnat National (), commonly referred to as simply National or Division 3, is the third division of the French football league system behind Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. Contested by 18 clubs, the Championnat National operates on a system of ...

. He was fired by Châteauroux on 11 October 2021, following a home loss to Concarneau, with the club in the middle of the table.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

AC Milan *

: 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96 * Supercoppa Italiana: 1993,

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

* European Cup/UEFA Champions League: 1989–90, 1993–94 * European Super Cup: 1989,

* Intercontinental Cup: 1989 Paris Saint-Germain * Coupe de France: 1997–98 * Coupe de la Ligue: 1997–98 * Trophée des Champions: 1998 Monaco * French Division 1: 1999–2000 *Trophée des Champions: 2000 Individual *Serie C1 top-scorer: 1987–88 (15 goals) * Ligue 1 Player of the Year: 1998 *'' France Football''s Best Foreign Player in France: 1997–98, 1999–2000 *AC Milan Hall of Fame

References

External links

* *
Profile at FIGC.it
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simone, Marco 1969 births Living people Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italian expatriate men's footballers Como 1907 players AC Legnano players AC Milan players Paris Saint-Germain FC players Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Monaco AS Monaco FC players OGC Nice players Serie A players Serie C players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 managers Italian football chairmen and investors Footballers from the Province of Varese Italian expatriate sportspeople in France Italian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Italian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland SSD Virtus CiseranoBergamo 1909 players Expatriate football managers in Monaco Expatriate football managers in Switzerland Italian football managers AS Monaco FC managers FC Lausanne-Sport managers Tours FC managers Stade Lavallois managers Club Africain football managers Marco Simone LB Châteauroux managers Men's association football forwards Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Italy men's B international footballers UEFA Champions League–winning players 20th-century Italian sportsmen