Roberto Landi (born 2 January 1956) 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 ...

manager and former player.

Playing career

Landi was born in

Forlì Forlì ( ; ; ; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) and city in Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy, and is, together with Cesena, the capital of the Province of Forlì-Cesena.The city is situated along the Via Emilia, to the east of the Montone river, ...

. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he joined the

Piacenza Piacenza (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Piacenza, eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with more ...

youth system in 1966 and later joined the first team, then playing in

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

division. He later moved to

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

as second-choice goalkeeper, and then played also for

Ravenna Ravenna ( ; , also ; ) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its Fall of Rome, collapse in 476, after which ...

and

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, before to leave Italy to join 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 ...

in 1979, at the age of 23. During his

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

n time, he played for

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

and

Chicago Sting The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from ...

, before signing for South African side

Kaizer Chiefs Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) is a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premiership. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Kings" or "Chiefs" in Zu ...

, and returning in the United States with

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

in 1983. He then returned in Italy and played for a number of amateur sides before retiring at the age of 30.

Coaching career

Landi served as goalkeeping coach for the

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during their

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

campaigns. From 1992 to 1995 he served as head coach of Italian amateur team Marignano. In 1998, he became head coach of the Georgia U21 national team, and later filled the same position for the Lithuania U21 in 2001. He obtained a

UEFA Pro License The UEFA coaching licences are documents testifying credentials of managers/ coaches among members of UEFA. The governing body for football in Europe mandates several licences, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro ...

in 2003, and was part of

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 ...

managing staff in their 2002–03 campaign. In January 2005 he became head coach of National Bucharest, where he achieved a record 17 wins in a row. He left the post in September 2005, citing personal reasons, later being appointed as Qatar U21 head coach. He then briefly moved in Hungary, serving as

FC Sopron FC Sopron is a Hungarian football club from the town of Sopron, near the Austrian border. It was founded in 1921 as ''Soproni Postás''. The club's home stadium is Stadion Városi with a capacity of 5,300. History With the beginning of the sea ...

head for three matches in the 2006–07 season before being sacked for losing their local derby to

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

. In October 2007 he was linked with the managing position at

Port Vale F.C. Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

through his agent Bryan Yeubrey. In June 2008 Landi was linked with

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

side Livingston He was appointed manager of the club on 11 June, August 2008 best coach of the month. In June 2009, he was unveiled as new head coach of

Royale Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (), also known as Union Saint-Gilloise, Union SG or simply Union, is a Belgian professional Football club (association football), football club from Brussels based in Forest, Belgium, Forest. Founded in 1897 in the ne ...

. He was however dismissed later in December due to money problems with the club. He was hired in January 2011 to be the Liberia national team, but was sacked in February 2012. He was linked to the position again in May 2014. The Italian was the manager of Zambian side City of Lusaka between 2017 and 2018. During his time in Lusaka, he was publicly critical of refereeing in Zambia. He was appointed manager of Georgian side

FC Kolkheti-1913 Poti FC Kolkheti 1913, commonly referred to as Kolkheti Poti, is a Georgia (country), Georgian association football, football club based in Poti. The team competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top division of Football in Georgia (country), Georgian footb ...

for the 2018-19 season but left the role after three months. In September 2019, Landi was appointed manager of CAPS United in Zimbabwe. The owners said the aim of the appointment was to utilise Landi's overseas contacts in order to export their talent abroad. His next destination was Ghana. He was appointed manager of Ashanti Gold in February 2020, but did not begin his role until September due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. However, Landi left the club in October 2020 claiming the club had refused to pay him since being appointed manager. Landi applied for the Nigera managers job in August 2024. He was publicly critical of the NFF for their handling of the selection process.

Managerial statistics

References

External links