Carmelo Di Bella (January 30, 1921 – September 9, 1992) was an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player and manager. Di Bella spent the vast majority of his career in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

where he was a prominent figure in the footballing scene, especially in relation to the island's most successful clubs;

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also b ...

and

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its ...

Playing career

Di Bella, a left wing, started his professional career for his native city team

. From 1941 he played for ''Juventina Palermo'', then renamed to

in 1946. He also played a Serie A season with the ''rosanero'', making nine appearances and scoring a goal in 1948–49. He retired from playing football in 1954, after two seasons as player/manager for minor team

Akragas Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one of ...

from

Agrigento Agrigento (; scn, Girgenti or ; grc, Ἀκράγας, translit=Akrágas; la, Agrigentum or ; ar, كركنت, Kirkant, or ''Jirjant'') is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy and capital of the province of Agrigento. It was one o ...

Managing career

After two seasons as coach of minor team Termitana from

Termini Imerese Termini Imerese (; scn, Tèrmini ) , grc, Θερμαὶ αἱ Ἱμερᾶαι , grc, Θερμαὶ Ἱμέραι , or grc, Θερμὰ (Ἱμεραῖα) ; la, Thermae Himerenses; literally "Himera's hot springs". is a town of the Metropo ...

, Di Bella was appointed as

's youth team coach in 1957. In 1958–59, with just twelve matches remaining, Di Bella was called to replace

Blagoje Marjanović Blagoje "Moša" Marjanović ( sr-Cyrl, Благоје "Моша" Марјановић, ; 9 September 1907 – 1 October 1984) was a Serbian football player and manager. Early life Born to merchant father Dimitrije and housewife mother Sofija, yo ...

with the goal to save the club from relegation to

Serie C The Serie C () is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega P ...

, with the initial support of technical director

Felice Borel Felice Placido Borel (; 5 April 1914 – 21 January 1993) was an Italian football player who played as a striker. He was a member of the Italy national football team that won the 1934 FIFA World Cup. Club career Borel was born in Nice, France ...

. Di Bella ended the season with a sixteenth place which allowed Catania to avoid relegation, and he was consequently confirmed at the helm of Catania. Di Bella coached Catania till 1966, when he resigned from his office, obtaining a

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

promotion in 1960 and leading the Sicilian club to the Italian top division until his resignations. Di Bella then signed for

Catanzaro Catanzaro (, or ; scn, label= Catanzarese, Catanzaru ; , or , ''Katastaríoi Lokrói''; ; la, Catacium), also known as the "City of the two Seas", is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its p ...

, narrowly missing promotion to Serie A. In 1967, he became head coach of Palermo, where he immediately won

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

bringing the ''rosanero'' back to Serie A. He left Palermo in 1971 to return to Catania, where however did not repeat his previous triumphs with the ''rossoblù'' (eighth, then fifth, in Serie B). In 1974, he became coach of Reggiana of Serie B: he avoided relegation in his first season, but not in the second. In 1976–77 he coached again Catania, but without being able to avoid relegation. His last coaching effort, in 1981, was as Palermo boss: called to coach the ''rosanero'' since the 28th matchday, he helped the club to avoid relegation from Serie B. Di Bella died in 1992 in

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

*1941–42

(Palermo) *1947–48

(Palermo)

Manager

*1967–68

(Palermo)

References

External links

Profile at Enciclopedia Del Calcio
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