Rolando Maran (born 14 July 1963) 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 Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. His playing career as a defender was spent mostly with

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona. History The name came from t ...

. He then managed several

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 ...

clubs, and after losing the promotion play-off final with

Varese Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559. It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...

in 2012, had his first

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 ...

job with

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

. Maran led Catania to a best-ever 8th place in his first season. Also in the top flight, he had four seasons in charge of Chievo before leading

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 ...

from 2018 to 2020.

Playing career

Maran played for Benacense Riva,

Valdagno Valdagno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Vicenza, north-eastern Italy. The town was the birthplace of the textile manufacturing company Marzotto, and home to the Italian hotel chain "Jolly Hotels". Etymology The word "Valdagno" is th ...

Carrarese Carrarese Calcio 1908, commonly referred to as Carrarese, is an Italian football club based in Carrara, Tuscany. The team plays in Serie B, second tier of Italian football, after promotion from Serie C in 2023–24. History The club was foun ...

and

Fano Fano () is a city and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by pop ...

. He spent nine years at Chievo from 1986 to 1995.

Coaching career

Serie B

After retiring as a player in 1997, Maran started his coaching career in 1997 at his former side Chievo as a coach, he joined

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

as a youth coach in 1998 and stayed there for two years before becoming the youth coach at

Cittadella Cittadella () is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around . There are fo ...

in 2000. Two years later, he became that club's first-team manager. Maran became manager of newly relegated

club

on 5 July 2005 on a one-year contract. The following 5 March, with the team in 5th, he was replaced by Zdenek Zeman. He joined

club

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

in 2006, where he was sacked and replaced by Giuseppe Materazzi in February 2007 with the team in 13th. Maran joined

Triestina Unione Sportiva Triestina Calcio 1918, commonly referred to US Triestina or just Triestina, is an Italian football club based in Trieste, in the northern Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Originally established in 1918, Triestina was one of the fo ...

in June 2007, and two years later he joined fellow Serie B side

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. He helped them avoid relegation. On 15 June 2010, his contract was extended for a further two years, but he was dismissed just under a year later. In October 2011, Maran joined struggling

, replacing

Benito Carbone Benito Carbone (born 14 August 1971) is an Italian association football, football manager and former professional player. Since August 2024, he is the head coach of Inter Milan's Inter Milan Youth Sector, under-18 side. As a player, he was play ...

as head coach. He led them to the playoffs; however they lost out on promotion to

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 ...

, 4–2 on aggregate.

Serie A years

On 11 June 2012, Maran joined Serie A club

. He took them to 8th place in a record-breaking season where they accrued 56 points from 38 matches. The season also saw Catania take a record number of home wins in one season, its record number of victories overall in a single top flight campaign, as well as its record points total in Serie A for the fifth consecutive season. Maran was dismissed on 20 October 2013 after a 1–2 loss to

that left Catania in the relegation zone, and replaced by

Luigi De Canio Luigi "Gigi" De Canio (born 26 September 1957) is an Italian association football, football manager and a former player who played as a Defender (association football)#Full-back, full-back. Career Player De Canio, a Defender (football)#Full-back ...

. He returned on 15 January, before being sacked for the second time later on 6 April, after five defeats in a row and with the team bottom of the league. On 19 October 2014, Maran was named new head coach of former club Chievo, replacing

Eugenio Corini Eugenio Corini (born 30 July 1970) is an Italian professional football coach and former player. A talented, dynamic, and hard-working playmaker, known for his precise long passing, flair and his ability to orchestrate his team's attacking moves ...

. He was sacked on 29 April 2018, weeks before the end of his contract; the team was on the brink of the relegation zone having taken 11 points from the last 21 games. On 7 June 2018, Maran was appointed manager of

on a two-year contract. His side won seven of their first 12 games to challenge for a Champions League place in November; the only time the

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

ns had started so well was when they won the league for the only time in 1969–70. This form did not continue into the second half of the season, and on 3 March 2020, he was fired by Cagliari after a run of 12 consecutive games without a league win. On 26 August 2020, Maran signed a two-year contract with

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 ...

. On 21 December 2020, Maran was sacked.

Back to Serie B: Pisa and Brescia

On 23 June 2022,

club

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 ...

announced to have hired Maran as their new head coach. He was however sacked on 19 September 2022, leaving Pisa at the bottom of the league table after six games. On 14 November 2023, Maran was hired by

as their new head coach for the ongoing season. He was dismissed on 9 December 2024, following a 1–2 loss against

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

Managerial statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maran, Rolando 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Trento Footballers from Trentino Men's association football defenders Italian men's footballers Italian football managers AC ChievoVerona players Carrarese Calcio 1908 players Alma Juventus Fano 1906 players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players AS Cittadella managers Brescia Calcio managers SSC Bari managers US Triestina Calcio 1918 managers LR Vicenza managers SSD Varese Calcio managers Catania FC managers AC ChievoVerona managers Cagliari Calcio managers Pisa SC managers Serie A managers Serie B managers Serie C managers 20th-century Italian sportsmen