Roberto Muzzi (; born 21 September 1971) is an Italian former professional football striker, currently contracted with

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitan ...

as a "club manager". During his career, he played for several Italian clubs including A.S. Roma,

Pisa Calcio Pisa Sporting Club, commonly referred to as Pisa, is an Italian football club based in Pisa, Tuscany. The team currently plays in Serie B. The club was founded in 1909 as Pisa Sporting Club and refounded in 1994 as Pisa Calcio (and registered i ...

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. In the 2022-23 season, they compete in Serie B. As of 2021–22, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,416-seat ...

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a f ...

, and S.S. Lazio. He was also part of the Italy U-21 team from 1990 to 1994, playing 19 matches and scoring 4 goals under manager

Cesare Maldini Cesare Maldini (; 5 February 1932 – 3 April 2016) was an Italian professional football manager and player who played as a defender. Father to Paolo Maldini and grandfather to Daniel Maldini, Cesare began his career with Italian side Tries ...

, and winning the

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

; he also took part at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, although he never received a call-up for the senior Italy side. He was known in particular for his electrifying speed as a forward.

Career

Muzzi started his career with A.S. Roma, making his debut in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

on 11 February 1990, in a league match against

Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...

ended in a 1–1 tie, and scoring his first goal the following season. With Roma, he won the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity ...

in 1991, also helping his side to reach an all-Italian

UEFA Cup Final The UEFA Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, is an association football competition established in 1971 by UEFA. It is considered the second most important international competition for European clubs, after the UEFA Champions League. Clubs qu ...

that season, losing out to Inter, also missing out on the 1991 Supercoppa Italiana, which was won by

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s ...

. Muzzi was loaned to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named 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 been ...

club

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ...

in November 1993, where he scored 8 goals in 23 games. He then returned to Roma only to be sold in November 1994 to

, where he then spent four seasons, playing a total 144 games with 31

goals and 17 in

. Muzzi joined Udinese during the 1999–2000 season, spending four more seasons with the ''zebrette''; in total, he played 103 games for the club, scoring 39 goals, winning the

2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Udinese, Celta Vigo, and Stuttgart. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. First round *Matches played on 18–19 June and 25–26 June First leg ---- ''The game was awa ...

, which enabled the Friuli side to qualify for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

the following season. He then returned to Rome to join

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

for the 2003–04 season; although he was not a regular first-team member, his performances often proved to be decisive on the pitch, as shown by his goal which enabled Lazio to avoid relegation during the 2004–05 season; during his time with the club, he won the

2003–04 Coppa Italia The 2003–04 Coppa Italia was the 57th edition of the tournament. Lazio won the tournament for the 4th time in club history, winning the two-legged final over Juventus on a 4–2 aggregate score. Seedings and format In the 2003–04 Coppa Italia ...

, also reaching the semi-finals of the

2003–04 UEFA Cup The 2003–04 UEFA Cup was won by Valencia in the final against Marseille. It wrapped up a league and UEFA Cup double for Valencia. Porto could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League and al ...

, but missed out on the 2004 Supercoppa Italiana to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

. In September 2005, he joined

side

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

, and was one of the protagonists in the ''granatas return to the top flight. His second season with Torino, now in Serie A, saw Muzzi scoring only 3 goals. In September 2006, at the age of 35, and after having turned down a youth coach role at Torino, he agreed a two-year contract with

Serie C1 Lega Pro Prima Divisione was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 33 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 16 and 17 teams for group A and B respectively. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1. Before the 1978 ...

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. In October 2008 he announced his retirement from active football.

Coaching and managerial career

After retirement, he joined

AS Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

as a youth coach in 2009, serving on a number of different positions within the club until 2015. He subsequently joined

Andrea Stramaccioni Andrea Stramaccioni (; born 9 January 1976) is an Italian football manager and former player who last managed Qatari club Al Gharafa. A football coach with experiences as a youth coach of Roma and Inter Milan, he was put in charge of first team ...

's coaching staff at Panathinaikos and

AC Sparta Praha ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

. In 2019 he was named as

Aurelio Andreazzoli Aurelio Andreazzoli (born 5 November 1953) is an Italian football coach. He is currently the head coach of club Ternana. Career In 2005, Andreazzoli joined Roma to become head coach Luciano Spalletti's assistant coach, becoming a valuable part ...

's assistant at

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

, following the manager also at

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

. On 14 November 2019 he took over as head coach of Serie B club

, signing a deal with the Tuscan club till the end of the

2019–20 Serie B The 2019–20 Serie B (known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons) was the 88th season since its establishment in 1929. The 20-team format returned after 16 years, the last time being in the 2002–03 season. The season was scheduled to run from ...

season. He was however dismissed on 26 January 2020, following a string of disappointing results during his short tenure at the club. In July 2020 he accepted an offer to become the new technical director of

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football. It is a regional league, composed of 28 divisions divided geographically. All 20 regions are represented by at least one division except for Piedmont and ...

amateurs Lupa Frascati. A month later, following the club's takeover by the Lupa Frascati owners, he was announced as new youth system chief of then-

Serie C The Serie C () 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 body that runs the Serie C. The unification of the Lega ...

club

Arezzo Arezzo ( , , ) , also ; ett, 𐌀𐌓𐌉𐌕𐌉𐌌, Aritim. 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 o ...

. On 5 February 2022, Muzzi was dismissed from his role. In July 2022, Muzzi agreed to return to Cagliari as a "club manager", with the duty of assisting director of football Stefano Capozucca and dealing with organizational and management matters within the first team squad. On 20 December 2022, following the dismissal of

Fabio Liverani Fabio Liverani (; born 29 April 1976) is an Italian football manager and former midfielder, who was most recently in charge of Cagliari. He made 288 Serie A appearances across 12 seasons, representing Perugia, Lazio, Fiorentina and Palermo. ...

, Muzzi was appointed interim head coach. Following the appointment of Claudio Ranieri as new head coach, Muzzi filled in for a single game, a 2–0 win against

Cosenza Cosenza (; local dialect: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000; the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Province of Cosenza, which has a populati ...

, although he could not serve from the dugout and had to replaced by Fabio Pisacane due to him being sick.

Honours

Club

Roma *

: 1990–91 Udinese *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International F ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Lazio *

: 2003–04

International

Italy under-21 *

References

External links

Profile at La Gazzetta dello Sport
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muzzi, Roberto 1971 births Living people Footballers from Rome Association football forwards Italian footballers Italy youth international footballers Italy under-21 international footballers A.S. Roma players Pisa S.C. players Cagliari Calcio players Udinese Calcio players S.S. Lazio players Torino F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Olympic footballers of Italy Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Calcio Padova players Panathinaikos F.C. non-playing staff Italian expatriates in the Czech Republic Italian expatriates in Greece Italian football managers Empoli F.C. managers Serie B managers