Fernando Veneranda (23 May 1941 – 1 March 2007 in

Porto San Giorgio Porto San Giorgio is a ''comune'' (town or municipality) in the Province of Fermo, in the Marche region of Italy. It has approximately 15,700 inhabitants (2021) and it is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. History Already famous at the tim ...

) was an Italian

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player and manager.

Playing career

Veneranda, a forward, started his professional career for

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

, where he played from 1960 to 1963. He never played a single

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 ...

match, but appeared in a

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...

match, as well as in the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

and

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called Coupe de l'Europe Centrale, Mitteleuropäischer Pokal or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European association football, football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the suc ...

. He owns the record of being the Fiorentina players with the highest number of appearances without having ever played a league match. He then played for a number of

, B and C clubs. Veneranda ended his playing career in 1973 for

Matera Matera (, ; Neapolitan language, Materano: ) is a city and the capital of the Province of Matera in the regions of Italy, region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy. With a history of continuous occupation dating back to the Palaeolithic (10th mi ...

, and soon became manager of the same club.

Managing career

After his time at Matera, Veneranda moved to

Campobasso Campobasso (, ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in southern Italy, the capital of the region of Molise and of the province of Campobasso. It is located in the high basin of the Biferno river, surrounded by Sannio and Matese mountains. Campobas ...

Marsala Marsala (, ; ) is an Italian comune located in the Province of Trapani in the westernmost part of Sicily. Marsala is the most populated town in its province and the fifth largest in Sicily.The town is famous for the docking of Giuseppe Garibal ...

, and to

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 ...

, a former playing club of his, at the end of the 1976/1977 season. He is best remembered among Palermo fans for having led the

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 to its second

final in history, then lost 2–1 to giants

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. Despite this, Veneranda coached only a single

team in his whole career,

Avellino Avellino () is a city and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...

; he was called to coach the ''biancoverdi'' in October 1982 and obtained a good ninth place for the small club; he was fired after the tenth matchday of the next season. Veneranda retired from football in 1992, after he relegated to

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, 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 ...

1 with

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

. Veneranda died on 1 March 2007, aged 65, in his native city of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Veneranda, Fernando 1941 births 2007 deaths Sportspeople from the Province of Fermo Italian men's footballers Italian football managers Men's association football forwards Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players ACF Fiorentina players AC Prato players Palermo FC players Brescia Calcio players Genoa CFC players Potenza SC players FC Matera players Palermo FC managers Hellas Verona FC managers Calcio Foggia 1920 managers US Avellino 1912 managers Cagliari Calcio managers US Triestina Calcio 1918 managers ACR Messina managers Footballers from Marche 20th-century Italian sportsmen People from Porto San Giorgio