Roberto Muzzi (; born 21 September 1971) is an Italian former professional

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 ...

who played as a striker: He works as a "club manager" for

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

. During his career, he played for several Italian clubs including

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) 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 the Leaning Tow ...

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

, and

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 ...

. 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 Trie ...

, 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 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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 ...

; he also took part at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Playing career

Muzzi started his career with

AS Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...

, making his debut in

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 ...

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 * Inter Playa del Carmen, a Mexican club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, ...

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

in 1991, also helping his side to reach an all-Italian UEFA Cup Final that season, losing out to Inter, also missing out on the

1991 Supercoppa Italiana The 1991 Supercoppa Italiana was a match contested by 1990–91 Serie A winners Sampdoria and 1990–91 Coppa Italia winners Roma. The match took place on 24 August 1991 in Marassi, Genoa and resulted in a 1–0 victory for Sampdoria. Match d ...

, which was won by

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

. Muzzi was loaned to

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 ...

club

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 Serie B. Muzzi joined

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 award ...

, which enabled the Friuli side to qualify for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

the following season. He then returned to Rome to join

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 a ...

, but missed out on the

2004 Supercoppa Italiana The 2004 Supercoppa Italiana was a match contested by the 2003–04 winners AC Milan and the 2003–04 Coppa Italia winners Lazio. The match result was a 3–0 victory for AC Milan after a hat-trick by Andriy Shevchenko. Match details ...

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 ...

. In September 2005, he joined

side

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 city is main ...

, 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 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 ...

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

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

Coaching and managerial career

After retirement, Muzzi became coach of

youth in 2009, serving on numerous different positions within the club until 2015. He subsequently joined Andrea Stramaccioni's coaching staff at

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

and

AC Sparta Prague Athletic Club Sparta Praha (), commonly known as Sparta Prague and Sparta Praha, is a professional association football, football club based in Prague. It is the most successful club in the Czech Republic and one of the most successful in cen ...

. In 2019, Muzzi was named assistant coach under

Aurelio Andreazzoli Aurelio Andreazzoli (born 5 November 1953) is an Italian football coach recently in charge of club Empoli. Career In 2005, Andreazzoli joined Roma to become head coach Luciano Spalletti's assistant coach, becoming a valuable part of the team o ...

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 River, Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Ancient Ro ...

before moving to

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 ...

together. On 14 November 2019, Muzzi was appointed 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. However, following a string of disappointing results during his short tenure at the club, he was sacked on 26 January 2020. In July 2020, Muzzi was named technical director of

Eccellenza The Eccellenza (, "excellence") is the fifth level (since 2014–15) of Italian football.Official ...

amateurs Lupa Frascati. One 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 (), 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 ...

club

Arezzo Arezzo ( , ; ) 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 of Above mean sea level, above sea level. As of 2 ...

. On 5 February 2022, Muzzi was dismissed from his role. In July 2022, Cagliari appointed Muzzi as director of football alongside 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. He is the head coach of club Ternana. He made 288 Serie A appearances across 12 seasons, representing Perugia, Lazio, Fiorentina and Palermo. He was the ...

, Muzzi was appointed interim head coach. Following the appointment of

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Serie A club AS Roma, Roma but will leave on 30 June 2025, followin ...

as new head coach, Muzzi filled in for a single game, a 2–0 win against

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

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

Honours

Roma *

: 1990–91 Udinese *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Lazio *

: 2003–04 Italy U21 *

References

External links

Profile at La Gazzetta dello Sport
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muzzi, Roberto 1971 births Living people Footballers from Rome Men's association football forwards Italian men's footballers Italy men's youth international footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers AS Roma players Pisa SC players Cagliari Calcio players Udinese Calcio players SS Lazio players Torino FC players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players Olympic footballers for 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 FC managers Serie B managers 20th-century Italian sportsmen