Luciano Zauri (; born 20 January 1978) 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 a former player who played as a full-back or

wide midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

on either flank. He is the head coach of club

Foggia Foggia (, ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere delle Puglie, Tavoliere, also know ...

Club career

Atalanta

Zauri made his debut in Serie A in the 1996–97 season with

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

in a 4–0 loss at home to Roma. He spent the following season with Chievo Verona before returning to

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

with Atalanta in the 1998–99 season. Zauri then spent the following five seasons with Atalanta, three of which were in Serie A and two in

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 ...

Lazio

In 2003, following Atalanta's relegation, Zauri, along with teammate

Ousmane Dabo El Hadji Ousmane Dabo (born 8 February 1977) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Dabo played for Rennes, Inter Milan, Vicenza, Parma, Monaco, Atalanta, Lazio, Manchester City and New England Revolution. He repr ...

, was sold to

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

, Lazio paid €5.65 million to acquire Zauri. With Lazio, Zauri won the 2003–04 edition of 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 ...

. He became a regular at Lazio and evolved into a leader on the pitch. In January 2007, following the sale of

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

winner and captain Massimo Oddo to

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, Zauri was chosen as the new

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. Zauri played a pivotal role in helping the club reach the

2007–08 UEFA Champions League The 2007–08 UEFA Champions League was the 16th season of UEFA's premier European club association football, football tournament, the UEFA Champions League, since it was rebranded in 1992, and the 53rd tournament overall. The 2008 UEFA Champion ...

and scored his first goal in the competition in the 1–1 draw to

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. His contract with Lazio expired in the summer of 2007, and then he was offered a new five-year contract and eventually re-signed with the club. In the summer of 2008, he was loaned to

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 ...

with the option to buy out the player. He played all 10 European matches for ''Viola''.

Sampdoria

On 10 July 2009, Zauri moved to

U.C. Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Genoa, Liguria. Sampdoria was formed in 1946 from the List of football club mergers, merg ...

on a loan deal with the option to buy out the player. He played in the right-back position ahead of Marius Stankevičius but sometimes moved to left-back, such as in a 2–0 loss to

in September, ahead of Reto Ziegler as left-back and Stankevičius as starting right-back. Zauri returned to Lazio on 1 July 2010 and played a few friendlies for the club as full-back Aleksandar Kolarov was sold. Sampdoria loaned him in again on 19 August. As a consequence Stankevičius was loaned to

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

from

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Pescara

During the 2013 winter transfer window, Zauri joined

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 season, he retired from professional football. In total he 432 appearances throughout his career, including 301 in Serie A, scoring seven goals.

International career

Zauri made five appearances with the Italy national team. He made his ''Azzurri'' debut on 5 September 2001 against

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. He then played the first match after the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, a friendly match against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. He also played twice at

UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying Qualification for the 2004 UEFA European Championship took place between September 2002 and November 2003. Fifty teams were divided into ten groups, with each team playing the others in their group twice, once at home and once away. The top te ...

matches as a starter in October 2002. However, after he played the friendly match against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on 20 November 2002, he never played for ''Azzurri'' again, although he was called up to the first match after the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

, a friendly match against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, by new coach Roberto Donadoni.

Coaching career

After retirement, Zauri entered into coaching as assistant to Massimo Oddo at

. After Oddo's dismissal from the club in February 2017, he served as caretaker manager for three days as the club searched for a replacement, without taking charge of any games during this period. He left Pescara on 17 February 2017, following the appointment of Zdeněk Zeman as new head coach. He successively returned to Pescara, serving as Under-19 coach in the 2018–19 season. On 5 June 2019, Zauri was announced to have been promoted as the new head coach of Pescara, taking over from Giuseppe Pillon. He resigned as head coach on 20 January 2020, following a loss to Salernitana. On 6 April 2022, Zauri returned to Pescara, this time in

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 ...

, replacing outgoing manager Gaetano Auteri. On 25 April 2023, he was announced as Head Coach of Ħamrun Spartans, replacing outgoing manager Branko Nišević. With the club, he won a Maltese national title in 2024, after which he opted to depart in order to move back to Italy. On 7 November 2024, Zauri accepted the coaching post at Serie C club

Honours

Player

; Lazio *

: 2003–04

Manager

; Ħamrun Spartans *

Maltese Premier League The Maltese Premier League, known as 360Sports Malta Premier for sponsorship reasons with 360Sports (colloquialism, colloquially known as ''Il-Kampjonat Premjer''), is the highest level of professional football in Malta. Managed by the Malta Foot ...

: 2023–24

References

External links

FIGC National Team Statistic Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zauri, Luciano Living people 1978 births People from Pescina Footballers from the Province of L'Aquila Italian men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football utility players Italy men's international footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Serie A players Serie B players Atalanta BC players AC ChievoVerona players SS Lazio players ACF Fiorentina players UC Sampdoria players Delfino Pescara 1936 players Italian football managers Serie B managers Serie C managers Delfino Pescara 1936 managers Ħamrun Spartans F.C. managers Calcio Foggia 1920 managers