Devis Mangia (; born 6 June 1974) is an Italian professional

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 ...

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Managerial career

Early years

Mangia started his coaching career at age 30, working alongside

Sean Sogliano Sean Luca Sogliano (born 28 February 1971) is an Italian football director and former player, currently working for Serie A club Hellas Verona as the club's director of football. He is the son of former footballer Riccardo Sogliano. Playing ca ...

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

club

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

and leading them to two promotion, and back into professionalism, in three years. He successively worked at

Serie D The Serie D () is the highest level of semi-professional football in Italy, and the fourth tier of the Italian national league system. It sits beneath the third and lowest fully professional league, Serie C, and feeds in to it through promotion ...

and

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

clubs from the Northern Italy such as

Tritium Tritium () or hydrogen-3 (symbol T or H) is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of ~12.33 years. The tritium nucleus (t, sometimes called a ''triton'') contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas the nucleus of the ...

Ivrea Ivrea (; ; ; ) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. Situated on the road leading to the Aosta Valley (part of the medieval Via Francigena), it straddles the Dora Baltea and is ...

and

Valenzana Valenzana Mado is an Italian football club, based in Valenza, Piedmont. Currently it plays in Promozione Piedmont and Aosta Valley. History Valenzana Mado The club was founded in 2012 after the merger of Valenzana Calcio and G.S. Mado. It ...

. In 2010, he returned at Varese, this time as youth coach, and guided a team composed by unknown youngsters to a spot in the

Campionato Nazionale Primavera The Campionato Nazionale Primavera – Trofeo Giacinto Facchetti, was an Italian football youth competition. It is organised by the Lega Serie A and the participating teams that take part in Serie A and Serie B: the first edition was held in the 1 ...

final.

Palermo

In June 2011, Mangia agreed to follow director of football Sean Sogliano at

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 ...

, accepting a job offer as head of the under-19 team at the Sicilian club in place of Paolo Beruatto. Later on 31 August, Mangia was surprisingly appointed as temporary head coach following the dismissal of

Stefano Pioli Stefano Pioli (born 20 October 1965) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is currently manager of Serie A club ACF Fiorentina. Pioli has managed several clubs in Serie A, including Bologna, Lazio, Int ...

, under recommendation by Sogliano; despite not having the required coaching badges, he was allowed to serve as head coach due to having been admitted to the national 2011–12 UEFA Pro license course. His first game in charge of team duties, played on 11 September against European powerhouse

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1 ...

saw Palermo, now switched to a brand-new 4–4–2 tactical disposition, achieving an astonishing 4–3 win, thanks to a brace from captain

Fabrizio Miccoli Fabrizio Miccoli (; born on 27 June 1979) is an Italian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He scored 103 goals in 259 matches in Serie A across nine seasons, representing ...

. Under Mangia's tenure, Palermo significantly improved and achieved three wins and ten points in the first five Serie A games, including a consecutive two games with a clean sheet, a relevant feat for what was the second-worst defence in the previous season; such results, together with the strict relationship between Mangia and director of football

and

Delio Rossi Delio Rossi (born 26 January 1960) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played as a midfielder. Playing career Rossi was born in Rimini. His playing career was not a bright one, as he reached his personal top from 1981 to 198 ...

's confirmed refusal of a Palermo comeback, led the press to speculate about the possibility of him being offered a new contract as permanent head coach. Despite Sogliano's resignation as director of football on 2 November 2011, Mangia was then eventually offered a two-year contract as head coach, which he signed on 4 November 2011. On 19 December 2011, he was sacked from his position after the 2-0 derby defeat to Sicilian rivals,

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

the day before, along with assistant coach Onofrio Barone.

Italy U21

Devis Mangia has been hired as Italy's under-21 coach, replacing

Ciro Ferrara Ciro Ferrara (; born 11 February 1967) is an Italian former footballer and manager. Ferrara spent his playing career as a defender, initially at Napoli and later on at Juventus, winning seven total Serie A titles as well as other domestic and ...

. Mangia described the job as "one of the most prestigious in Italian football" and says "it is a sign of great esteem and responsibility, I'm really happy". Mangia has vowed to follow the model of Italy's senior team coach

Cesare Prandelli Claudio Cesare Prandelli (; born 19 August 1957) is an Italian former football coach and former player. Playing career Prandelli was a midfielder who moved from Atalanta to Juventus in 1979. His first game for Juventus was in the 1979–80 Eur ...

, who guided the Azzurri to the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship final. He guided the ''Azzurrini'' to qualification to the

2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, or simply the 2013 Euro Under-21, was the 19th staging of UEFA's UEFA European Under-21 Championship, European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Israel from 5–18 June 2013. The Is ...

, where the Italian team made it to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, where they were ultimately defeated 4–2 by

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. He stepped down from his role after the end of the tournament.

Spezia, Bari

On 16 December 2013, Mangia was named new head coach of ambitious

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 ...

club

Spezia La Spezia (, or ; ; , in the local ) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second-largest city in the Liguri ...

, guiding them to eighth place and qualification to the promotion playoffs, where they were defeated 1–0 by

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

in the first preliminary round and thus eliminated. He successively left Spezia to become new head coach of

promotion hopefuls

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

for the 2014–15 season, but was sacked on 16 November 2014 due to poor results.

Universitatea Craiova

On 23 May 2017, Mangia was named new head coach of Romanian team Universitatea Craiova. On 14 October, he was named "Coach of the First Half of the Season" by LPF. On 27 May 2018, Universitatea won the Romanian Cup.

Malta national team

On 30 December 2019, the Malta Football Association announced the appointment of Devis Mangia as national teams’ head coach. Mangia signed a contract until 31 December 2023. Under his leadership, Malta's national team achieved the longest undefeated streak in its history (seven matches) between 6 September 2020 and 24 March 2021. On 27 September 2022, Mangia was temporarily suspended by the Malta Football Association after allegedly having made sexual advances on a player in the Malta squad. A few days later, the Malta Football Association announced to have referred the case to the local police for investigation. On 7 November 2022, Mangia resigned from his position as head coach, while denying the allegations.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Coach

Varese *

: 2005–06 Universitatea Craiova *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 2017–18 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

runner-up:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Italy U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

runner-up:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mangia, Devis 1974 births Living people People from Cernusco sul Naviglio Sportspeople from the Metropolitan City of Milan Italian football managers Italian expatriate football managers Serie A managers Serie B managers Serie C managers Serie D managers Eccellenza managers Liga I managers SSD Varese Calcio managers ASD Calcio Ivrea managers Valenzana Mado managers Palermo FC managers Spezia Calcio managers SSC Bari managers Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC managers CS Universitatea Craiova managers Malta national football team managers Italian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Italian expatriate sportspeople in Malta Expatriate football managers in Romania Expatriate football managers in Malta 21st-century Italian sportsmen