Francesco Calzona (born 24 October 1968) 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 who is currently managing the Slovakia national team.

Playing career

Calzona had a very short career as a player, appearing three times with

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Italy and the capital of the Province of Arezzo, province of the same name located in Tuscany. Arezzo is about southeast of Florence at an elevation of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

in 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 ...

division, and also making a single

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appearance.

Coaching career

Calzona worked as an amateur coach and coffee dealer during the 1990s; during the course of the 1999–2000 season, while in charge of Tuscan amateurs Tegoleto, he opted to resign and instead suggest to hire up-and-coming amateur coach

Maurizio Sarri Maurizio Sarri (; born 10 January 1959) is an Italian professional football manager who is currently manager of Serie A club Lazio. Sarri did not play football professionally, taking part as an amateur centre back and coach while working as a ba ...

as his replacement. Since then, he became part of Sarri's coaching staff, being his main assistant in all of his managerial jobs until

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

. In 2020, he joined

Eusebio Di Francesco Eusebio Di Francesco (; born 8 September 1969) is an Italian manager and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the head coach of club Venezia. Club career Di Francesco started his career with Tuscan teams Empoli and ...

's coaching staff at

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

, then returning to Napoli the following year to work alongside new head coach

Luciano Spalletti Luciano Spalletti (; born 7 March 1959) is an Italian Association football, football Association football manager, manager and former association footballer, player. He was most recently the manager of the Italy national football team, Italian n ...

Slovak national team

On 30 August 2022, Calzona was hired as the new head coach of the Slovakia national team. Following

Pavel Hapal Pavel Hapal (born 27 July 1969) is a Czech former footballer and coach of Baník Ostrava. Playing career As a footballer, Hapal played for Dukla Prague, CD Tenerife, Sparta Prague, and SK Dynamo České Budějovice. At international level, he ...

, Calzona became the second non-native coach of the team and the first of non-

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origin. On 16 November 2023, following a 4–2 win against

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, Calzona's Slovakia qualified for the

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

Napoli

On 19 February 2024, Napoli announced the appointment of Calzona as their new head coach for the remainder of the season, replacing

Walter Mazzarri Walter Mazzarri (; born 1 October 1961) is an Italian professional football manager and former player. After a 14-year playing career with Italian clubs including Reggiana and Empoli, Mazzarri coached several smaller Italian sides and in 2007 ...

just two days before the

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round of 16 first leg against

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. In doing so, Calzona worked as both Slovakia manager and Napoli head coach for the remainder of the 2023–24 season, making him the first Serie A manager ever to also serve contemporaneously as a national team manager for a foreign country during his stay. This was Napoli's third manager of the season, after Mazzarri had previously replaced

Rudi Garcia Rudi José Garcia (; ; born 20 February 1964) is a French professional football manager and former player who is currently the head coach of the Belgium national team. Garcia began his professional career with Lille, and went on to have stints ...

. He completed the season in a lacklustre fashion, ending in tenth place and missing out on European qualification, on the worst-ever Serie A performance for an incumbent national champion.

Managerial statistics

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calzona, Francesco Living people 1968 births Italian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders SS Arezzo players Italian football managers Slovakia national football team managers People from Vibo Valentia Footballers from Calabria SSC Napoli managers Serie A managers UEFA Euro 2024 managers 20th-century Italian sportsmen