Armando Perna (born 25 April 1981) is an Italian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

who is currently a part of the technical management of

Cosenza Calcio Cosenza Calcio S.r.l. is an Italian football club, based in Cosenza, Calabria. Currently the team plays in . For the 2025/2026 season it shall play in the Serie C History Cosenza Calcio The club was founded in 1926 as "Cosenza Foot-Ball Club" ( ...

Career

He started his career at

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

team

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

. He was loaned to

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 ...

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

youth team in 2000. In 2001, he was loaned to

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

, another Serie C1 team, playing 10 games. After Livorno won promotion, the team signed him permanently. He found it difficult to win a regular place, just playing 12 games in his first

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 ...

season. He was loaned out again, this time to

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

and Modena, both Serie B. Modena F.C. signed him in a co-ownership deal in 2005, and gained full ownership in 2006. He was loaned to

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

in January 2007, until the end of the season. On 7 September 2020 he moved to

Legnago Legnago (; Venetian: ''Lenjago'') is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Verona, Veneto, northern Italy, with population (2012) of 25,439. It is located on the Adige river, about from Verona. Its fertile land produces crops of rice, other c ...

. After one season as a team captain, in June 2021 Perna announced his retirement, whilst remaining at Legnago as an assistant coach to manager Giovanni Colella. After manager

Michele Serena Michele Serena (; born 10 March 1970) is an Italian football manager, and former football defender, most recently in charge as manager of Serie C club Legnago. He usually played as a right-back, although he was capable of playing on either flan ...

's sacking on March 28, 2022, Perna became interim head coach of the club. However, later that same day, Legnago confirmed that the club's former head coach, Giovanni Colella, who was the coach Perna started as an assistant coach under at Legnago, had been re-hired, with Perna continuing as an assistant. In July 2022, he was hired by

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

, where he was to act as sporting director Roberto Gemmi's right-hand man.Sarà Armando Perna l'uomo di fiducia di Gemmi a Cosenza
ildot.it, 8 June 2022

References

External links

* 1981 births Footballers from Palermo Living people Italian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Palermo FC players Udinese Calcio players US Livorno 1915 players US Salernitana 1919 players Modena FC 2018 players Parma Calcio 1913 players Calcio Padova players SSD Correggese Calcio 1948 players Paganese Calcio 1926 players FC Legnago Salus players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Serie D players SS Maceratese 1922 players 21st-century Italian sportsmen {{Italy-footy-defender-1980s-stub