Pasquale "Lil" Fuccillo (born 2 May 1956) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

. He is currently the chief scout at

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

Biography

Playing career

Fuccillo was born in Bedford to Italian parents and joined

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

from school. He established himself in their starting line-up, and there was even talk of a call-up to the Italy national team. Disaster struck, however, when a tackle by

Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gro ...

's Paul Clark shattered his leg. He broke his leg for a second time during his comeback match for the Luton youth team. He did manage, eventually, to regain his place in the team and played an important part as they won Second Division in 1982. In 1983 Fuccillo left Luton following a contractual dispute and played 19 games for the

Tulsa Roughnecks Tulsa Roughnecks may refer to any of four distinct professional soccer teams: *Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984), the original top-flight team that played in the North American Soccer League from 1978 to 1984. *Tulsa Roughnecks (1993–2000), the team ...

in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

. Fuccillo then joined

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

, before

John Wile John David Wile (born 9 March 1947) is an English former footballer and manager. Wile played as a central defender for Sunderland, although he did not play a Football League match for them. In 1967–68 he signed for Peterborough United, havi ...

brought him to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

. He helped Posh get to the 5th round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 1985/86, had a brief spell as caretaker manager in 1986/87 prior to

Noel Cantwell Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell (28 February 1932 – 8 September 2005) was an Irish football player and sometime cricketer. Club career Cantwell was born in Cork, Ireland, and was educated at the Roman Catholic Presentation Brothers College ...

's return to the club, but was released during the summer of 1987. He played briefly for Malta side

Valletta Valletta ( ; , ) is the capital city of Malta and one of its 68 Local councils of Malta, council areas. Located between the Grand Harbour to the east and Marsamxett Harbour to the west, its population as of 2021 was 5,157. As Malta’s capital ...

before short spells at

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

and

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Latimer Park. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in 1976, and have ...

. He finished his playing career at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

side

Wivenhoe Town Wivenhoe Town F.C. is an English association football, football club based in Wivenhoe, Essex. The club are currently members of the and play at Broad Lane. History The club was established as Wivenhoe Rangers by Frank Slaughter and students ...

Coaching career

Chris Turner brought him back to Peterborough United in 1991 as his assistant manager, and had an unsuccessful spell as manager when Turner became chairman. He joined

Barry Fry Barry Francis Fry (born 7 April 1945) is an English former football player and manager. An inside forward, Fry scored a goal for England Schoolboys in front of nearly 100,000 supporters at Wembley and was seen as the best player in the team. H ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

as coach, and then moved back to Peterborough United to be his assistant. His third spell at Peterborough United did not last long, however, as Fry sacked both Fuccillo and coach

Mick Halsall Michael Halsall (born 21 July 1961) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He scored 42 goals in 389 appearances in the Football League, playing for Birmingham City, Carlisle United, Grimsby Town and Peterboroug ...

in December 1996 as an economy measure. Fuccillo had spells as a scout for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

and as

John Still John Still (c. 1543 – 26 February 1607/1608) was Master of two Cambridge colleges and then, from 1593, Bishop of Bath and Wells. He enjoyed considerable fame as an English preacher and disputant. He was formerly reputed to be the author of an ...

's right-hand man at

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) *Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; anc ...

, but in November 2000 he returned to

as a

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

. A week later he was promoted to assistant manager, but, with the club at the foot of the league, Ricky Hill was sacked within weeks so Fuccillo then stepped up into the managerial seat. Following an unsuccessful reign,

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (27 December 1946 – 7 April 2024) was an Irish professional football manager and player. As a defender, Kinnear spent the majority of his career spanning ten seasons with Tottenham Hotspur and one with Brighton & H ...

was brought to the club in February as Director of Football, but took it upon himself to replace Fuccillo as manager as well. Surprisingly, Fuccillo remained at Luton Town as a coach until the end of the season. Their third manager of the season, however, was unable to save the club and Luton were relegated to the basement division for the first time since 1968. During the summer of 2001 he joined

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''GCE Hire Fleet Ltd. United Counties League'') is an England, English association football, football league covering an area including the English Counties of the United Kingdom, ...

side Wootton Blue Cross as a coach for

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar is the name of: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 * John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) ...

, making an immediate impact with the team starting with a ten-match winning sequence. After a season Fuccillo linked up with Peterborough United for a fourth time as a scout, but again this spell did not last long as he moved to perform a similar role with Premiership side Everton, combined at the start with some part-time coaching at Taylor's new club St Neots Town. He was reunited once more with Taylor as he began the 2006–07 season as a coach at

side

Arlesey Town Arlesey Town Football Club is a football club based in Arlesey, Bedfordshire, England. Affiliated to the Bedfordshire County Football Association, they are currently members of the and play at New Lamb Meadow. History The club was establishe ...

, but in November 2006 joined

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

as chief scout. On 21 March 2008, Lil Fucillo was appointed chief scout for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. On 3 September 2009 he left Newcastle United to take up a similar position at

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

rivals

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

. On 23 March 2012 Luton Town announced that Fuccillo had returned to the club in the role of Technical Director, which he held until his departure in April 2013. Fuccillo was appointed as chief scout at League One side

on 6 February 2014. Fuccillo is currently a scout at

side

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

References

External links

* * at * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuccillo, Lil 1956 births Living people Footballers from Bedford English men's footballers English people of Italian descent Italian British sportspeople Sportspeople of Italian descent Luton Town F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. players Wivenhoe Town F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. managers Luton Town F.C. managers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Tulsa Roughnecks (1978–1984) players Newcastle United F.C. non-playing staff Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff Barnet F.C. non-playing staff Arlesey Town F.C. non-playing staff Valletta F.C. players Men's association football midfielders English expatriate sportspeople in Malta Expatriate men's footballers in Malta English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers English football managers Crawley Town F.C. non-playing staff English Football League players