Massimo Carrera (; born 22 April 1964) is an Italian professional

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 ...

manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of clubs Spartak Moscow and later

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

, before leaving continental football and joining local club

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Ital ...

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 ...

. Nicknamed ''La Bandera'', he played as a defender for various European clubs, including

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

, which he later managed, and the Italy national team.

Club career

Carrera began his career at Pro Sesto, but rose to fame with

, enjoying five seasons with the club before moving to

in 1991. Under manager

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), sometimes popularly known as "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Italian football. A former defensive midfielder, as a p ...

, he was deployed at right back, a role he had also held at Bari. He disputed an excellent first season, culminating with being called up for the Italy national team. In his second season, he won the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

with the club. Carrera unwittingly played a huge role in helping

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

go unbeaten in the

1991–92 Serie A During the 1991–92 Serie A, under the guidance of Fabio Capello, Milan completed a remarkable unbeaten season, a run that eventually totalled 58 games. They finished eight points ahead of Serie A runners-up Juventus. However, it was a disappoi ...

season. During injury time of Juventus' home match against Milan on 15 September 1991, an innocent-looking cross from the right touchline hit Carrera's head, and the ball looped past a stranded

Stefano Tacconi Stefano Tacconi (; born 13 May 1957) is an Italian former professional association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He is the only goalkeeper to have won UEFA club competition records#List of pl ...

for the crucial equaliser. Milan would then go on to finish the season unbeaten, and embark on a record-breaking 58-match unbeaten streak. In 1994, with the arrival of

Marcello Lippi Marcello Romeo Lippi (; born 12 April 1948) is an Italian former professional football player and manager, who led the Italian national team to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was appointed as Italy head coach in the summer of 2004 and ...

, he was deployed as a

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) perciform fish of the family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 26 species in two genera. One species (''Pempheris xanth ...

, in place of

Luca Fusi Luca Fusi (; born 7 June 1963) is an Italian former professional footballer turned manager, who played as a midfielder or defender. He is the current head coach of Lega Pro Seconda Divisione team Castel Rigone. During his club career he played ...

, and subsequently as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

, becoming a pillar of the team, and winning both

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 ...

and the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

in 1995. Carrera also reached the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

at the end of the season. Due to the arrival of skilled defenders

Pietro Vierchowod Pietro Vierchowod (, born 6 April 1959) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender, and a current manager. He also represented the Italian national side during his career, and was a member of the Italian squad that won the 1982 ...

and

Paolo Montero Rónald Paolo Montero Iglesias (born 3 September 1971) is a Uruguayan football manager and former player, who played as a central defender or left-back and is the manager of Primavera 1 team Juventus U19. Montero began his career in Uruguay ...

the following season, Carrera started more often from the bench, but still offered valued contribution when called upon. After 166 caps with Juventus, and having won Serie A, the Coppa Italia, the Supercoppa Italiana, the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and the UEFA Cup, he transferred to

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily kno ...

in the summer of 1996. Carrera quickly became

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

and leader of the ''Orobici'', playing there for eight seasons and totaling 207 caps and three goals. He left Bergamo in 2003 to join

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, and the following season, he settled in

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Vene ...

. He stayed in

Veneto Veneto (, ; vec, Vèneto ) or Venetia is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about five million, ranking fourth in Italy. The region's capital is Venice while the biggest city is Verona. Veneto was part of the Roman Empire unt ...

for just a season, and on 28 October 2005, at the age of 41, Carrera signed for Pro Vercelli. At the end of the 2007–08 season, at the age of 44, Carrera decided to retire from playing football to focus on coaching.

International career

Carrera's excellent performances with Juventus in his first year with the club earned him his first international call-up under manager

Arrigo Sacchi Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...

in 1991; Carrera later made his debut and only appearance with the Italy national team on 19 February 1992, in a 4–0 friendly win against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

at the

Stadio Dino Manuzzi The Stadio Dino Manuzzi, officially known as Orogel Stadium Dino Manuzzi for sponsorship reason, is a football stadium in Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and '' comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostr ...

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and '' comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was ...

Managerial career

Juventus

Carrera was reunited with former Juventus teammates

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...

and

Angelo Alessio Angelo Alessio (born 29 April 1965 in Capaccio) is an Italian football manager and former player. Playing career A central midfielder, Alessio started his professional career with then-Serie A club Avellino in 1984. He was then signed by Ita ...

in the summer of 2011 when he joined the club's coaching staff as a technical director. Due to a ten-month ban against head coach Conte for alleged implications of his failure to report match fixing and a similar ban against his assistant Alessio, Carrera became Juventus' caretaker manager in July 2012. In his first official match, he claimed the

2012 Supercoppa Italiana The 2012 TIM Supercoppa Italiana Final was the 25th edition of the Supercoppa, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's Serie A and Coppa Italia competitions. It was the third instance in four years that the match ...

defeating Napoli in Beijing, winning 4–2 after extra time. After Alessio's ban was removed, Carrera returned to the position of technical director, leaving the bench to Alessio.

Spartak Moscow

Before the 2016–17 season, Carrera was hired as an assistant manager for the Russian side

FC Spartak Moscow FC Spartak Moscow (russian: Футбольный клуб «Спартак» Москва, Futbolʹnyy klub «Spartak» Moskva, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Having won 12 Soviet championships (second only to Dyn ...

. When previous manager

Dmitri Alenichev Dmitri Anatolyevich Alenichev (russian: Дмитрий Анатольевич Аленичев; born 20 October 1972) is a Russian football coach, former player and politician. Club career Despite being a Spartak Moscow fan, Alenichev debuted ...

left the club on 5 August 2016 after Spartak's elimination from the UEFA Europa League by

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC ( el, AEK; for short Αθλητική Έvωση Κίτιον Λάρνακας , translit=''Athletiki Enosi Kition Larnakas'', "Athletic Union Kition of Larnaca") is a Cypriot professional football club based in Larnaca. The club ...

, Carrera was appointed the caretaker manager. On 17 August 2016, he was hired as Spartak's manager on a permanent basis, making his debut on 21 August against

Krasnodar Krasnodar (; rus, Краснода́р, p=krəsnɐˈdar; ady, Краснодар), formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southe ...

, where red-white captured their first victory 2–0. No other Spartak head coach managed to start their work as successfully as Carrera did: Spartak collected 28 of 36 points in first twelve matches under him. On 7 May 2017, Spartak secured their first

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

title since 2001 under Carrera's leadership. On 6 June 2017, he extended his Spartak contract to 31 May 2019. He was relieved of his duties in late 2018 following a number of poor performances, despite remaining seemingly popular among the fans, a move that caused controversy. In particular, many accused captain

Denis Glushakov Denis Borisovich Glushakov (russian: Денис Борисович Глушаков; born 27 January 1987) is a Russian international footballer who plays for Khimki and the Russian national team as a defensive midfielder and box-to-box midfie ...

of actively supporting the decision and called for his removal from the team.

AEK Athens

On 8 December 2019, Carrera was unveiled as the new manager of

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

club

. Massimo Carrera succeed to bring

to qualify for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

in the season

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

after beating

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

at the Play-off round for 2–1 at the

Athens Olympic Stadium The Olympic Stadium of Athens " Spyros Louis" ( el, Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο Αθηνών "Σπύρος Λούης", ''Olympiakó Stádio Athinon "Spyros Louis"'') is a sports stadium in Athens, Greece. It is a part of the Athens Olympic ...

getting in the Group stage.

Bari

On 9 February 2021, Carrera was hired as new head coach of

club

. He was dismissed just two months later, on 19 April 2021, following a last-minute home draw against

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 ...

, leaving Bari in third place with two games to go.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Bari *

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 ...

: 1988–89 *

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

: 1990 Juventus *

: 1994–95 *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual association football, football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

: 1995–96 *

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Manager

Juventus *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Spartak Moscow *

: 2016–17 *

Russian Super Cup The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Individual *Russian Premier League Coach of the Year: 2016–17

References

External links

* *
Massimo Carrera
at Myjuve.it
Massimo Carrera
at the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carrera, Massimo 1964 births Living people People from Sesto San Giovanni Men's association football defenders Delfino Pescara 1936 players S.S.C. Bari players Juventus F.C. players Atalanta B.C. players S.S.C. Napoli players Treviso F.B.C. 1993 players F.C. Pro Vercelli 1892 players Italian footballers U.S. Alessandria Calcio 1912 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players Italy men's international footballers Pro Sesto 1913 players U.S. Russi players Juventus F.C. non-playing staff Italian football managers Juventus F.C. managers FC Spartak Moscow managers AEK Athens F.C. managers Russian Premier League managers Super League Greece managers S.S.C. Bari managers Italian expatriate football managers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Russia Italian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in Russia Expatriate football managers in Greece UEFA Cup winning players UEFA Champions League winning players Footballers from Lombardy Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Milan