Matteo Boniciolli (born 18 April 1962) is an Italian basketball coach of

Scafati Basket Scafati Basket, known for sponsorship reasons as Givova Scafati, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Scafati, Campania. The club competes in the top level Italian professional basketball league, the Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). Hi ...

in the Italian

Lega Basket Serie A The Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) is a professional men's club (sport), club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that has been organised in Italy since 1920. Serie A is organised by Lega Basket, which is regulated by the Italian Basketball ...

(LBA). He has been a head coach since 1999, guiding several clubs in Italy and abroad to titles, also having taken charge of the Italian national team (as an assistant) and the Kazakhstan national team.

Coaching career

The

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

native started his career in his home town with local clubs, as assistant coach or in charge of youth squads. In the same city he encountered

Bogdan Tanjević Bogdan Tanjević ( sr-Cyrl, Богдан Тањевић; born 13 February 1947), nicknamed "Boša" () is a Montenegrin professional basketball coach and former player. He is best known for being KK Bosna's head coach when the club became the t ...

, who would help him join the Italian national team setup as coach of the Under-17 team and assistant coach of the senior side. In that latter role he would be part of the team's run to the

EuroBasket 1999 The 1999 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1999, was the 31st FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe, which also served as Europe qualifier for the 2000 Olympic Tournament, giving a berth ...

gold medal. He then moved to club coaching as head coach of Snaidero Udine in the second division Serie A2 in 1999. He led the Fruili side to the first division

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 ...

in his first season there, finishing seventh in the league the next year and earning a playoff spot. These performances caught the eye of

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Flats Service Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. H ...

who recruited him in 2001. With Fortitudo he would win the regular season in 2001-2002 but lost in the playoff finals. He was dismissed the next season after a run of poor results. He started the 2003-04 season at the helm of Sicilia Messina but left after 16 games due to struggles on and off the pitch for the club. The Italian then moved abroad, joining Telindus Oostende of the

Belgian League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

the same year. He reached the

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

final and the league semifinal the same year. However he was dismissed by the Belgians in April 2005. He then spent an uneventful season with Navigo.it Teramo back in Italy, finishing the league in midtable. Boniciolli was appointed coach of Air Avellino in 2006, he helped the side win the

Italian Cup 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 ...

in 2008, the first title in the club's history. This performance saw him awarded as the league's best coach for 2007-08. Joining

Virtus Bologna Virtus Pallacanestro Bologna, known for sponsorship reasons as Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1929, which makes it the oldest club in Italy and one ...

the next season, he also led them a title, the European third tier

2008–09 FIBA EuroChallenge The 2008–09 FIBA EuroChallenge was the sixth edition of Europe's third-tier level transnational men's professional club basketball FIBA EuroChallenge Tournament, and the first under the FIBA EuroChallenge name, organized by FIBA Europe. It was ...

. In doing so he became the first coach since

Ettore Messina Ettore Messina (born 30 September 1959) is an Italian professional basketball coach who is the head coach of Olimpia Milano of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He has won four EuroLeague championships as a head coach. Messina is regarded a ...

to win a European title with the Bologna side. He was named head coach of Serie A and

Euroleague The EuroLeague is a European men's professional basketball club competition. The league is widely recognised as the top-tier and the most prestigious men's basketball league in Europe. The league consists of 20 teams, of which 16 are given lon ...

side

Lottomatica Roma Virtus Roma 1960, commonly known as Virtus Roma, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Rome, Lazio. The club, named Pallacanestro Virtus Roma competed in the first division of Italian basketball, the LBA, for decades until 2020, whe ...

in December 2009, replacing Ferdinando Gentile. Roma and Boniciolli parted ways in January 2011 despite him guiding the side to the Euroleague Top 16. Boniociolli moved to newly formed Kazakhstani side

BC Astana Astana Basketball Club (), commonly referred to as BC Astana, is a Kazakh professional basketball club that is based in Astana, Kazakhstan. Founded in 2011, it has competed in the Kazakhstan Basketball Championship and the VTB United League sinc ...

in April 2011 to compete in both the Kazakhstani League and the

VTB United League The VTB United League () is an international professional men's club basketball league that was founded in 2009. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus and Kazakhstan. Since 2013, it is the first tier of Russian ...

. He helped guide the

Astana Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim ...

side to two consecutive domestic doubles (league and

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

) and a VTB United League playoff appearance in only its second tournament appearance in 2013. Following his success with Astana, he was appointed to lead the Kazakhstan national team, he guided them to an 80-60 victory over

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

in May 2013 to qualify for the

2013 FIBA Asia Championship The 2013 in sports, 2013 FIBA Asia Cup, FIBA Asia Championship for Men was the intercontinental championship for basketball organized by FIBA Asia that served as the qualifying tournament for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. The tourna ...

. With the aim of earning a place in the

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. The tournament was held from 30 August to 14 September 2014. Hosted by Spain, it was the la ...

at the tournament, Kazakhstan won their first three games to reach the next round, however they then lost the next six to finish in 8th place. However Astana and Boniciolli ended their contract by mutual agreement in December 2013, with the side sitting in 9th place in Group B of the VTB United League after winning the cup for the third time. In February 2015, Boniciolli returned to Fortitudo, by now in the third division

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 ...

, a few months the club won the playoffs to earn a promotion to the A2. On January 8, 2019, Boniciolli became new head-coach of VL Pesaro in LBA, the Italian highest basketball league.

References

External links

Lega Basket Serie A profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boniciolli, Matteo 1962 births Living people BC Astana coaches Italian expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna coaches Italian basketball coaches Sportspeople from Trieste Virtus Bologna coaches Pallacanestro Virtus Roma coaches Victoria Libertas Pesaro coaches Italian expatriate basketball people Italian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate basketball people in Belgium Expatriate basketball people in Kazakhstan