Valerio Bertotto (; born 15 January 1973) is an Italian football manager and 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 defender. He currently serves as the head coach of club

Giugliano Giugliano in Campania (), also known simply as Giugliano, is a city and (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italy. A suburb of Naples, as of 2025, it has 124,633 inhabitants, making it the most populated Italian city tha ...

Club career

Bertotto started his professional career during the 1990–91 season with

Alessandria Alessandria (; ) is a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. It is also the largest municipality of the region. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, ...

in the Italian

Serie C2 Serie C2 was the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Serie C. The league menaging t ...

. He joined

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 ...

in 1993, where he quickly became a historical masterpiece for the team, spending thirteen seasons with the Friuli side, also captaining his side to what is to date their only appearance in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. Bertotto also holds the record for the highest number of matches played for Udinese. In July 2006, aged 33, he left Udinese to join

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 ...

, another

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 ...

team, where he played two seasons as a regular for the Tuscan side. Subsequently, he was released as a free agent in June 2008. In January 2009, he accepted an offer from

Lega Pro Prima Divisione Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into ...

club

Venezia Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. However, he was released for free after the club was excluded from the Italian football panorama due to financial issues. In 2010, he obtained his UEFA A coaching license, which qualified him to coach

Lega Pro The Lega Italiano Calcio Professionistico (Italian for Professional Football Italian League), commonly known as Lega Pro (Pro League), is the governing body that runs the third tier of professional football competitions in Italy, the Serie C. I ...

teams.

International career

Bertotto has played four times for the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team () has represented Italy in men's international Association football, football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing body for fo ...

between 2000 and 2001, all during his spell at Udinese, with his senior international debut coming in a World Cup qualifying match against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

on 11 October 2000, held in Ancona, under manager

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

. He missed the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

due to a knee injury.

Style of play

Bertotto was a hard-tackling and uncompromising central or right-sided defender, who was solid in the air, and effective in the timing of his challenges. Although he was neither particularly quick nor technically gifted, he made up for his lack of pace and skill with his experience and positional sense, and his greatest strength was his ability to defend opposing forwards in one-on-one situations. He also stood out for his leadership throughout his career.

Managerial career

Italy U20 Lega Pro

On 9 August 2012 he was named head coach () of the Italy U20 Lega Pro in place of ''Giorgio Veneri''.

Serie C years

In April 2016, he took over the reins at

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

Pistoiese Football Club Pistoiese SSD, commonly known as Pistoiese, is an Italian association football club, based in Pistoia, Tuscany. Currently, Pistoiese plays in Serie D. Originally founded on 21 April 1921, the club has also played Serie A on a num ...

, guiding them to safety. He left in June 2016 to become the new head coach 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 ...

, which he left in August during the pre-season due to disagreements with the board. In March 2017, he returned to management, accepting an offer from Serie C club Bassano Virtus, with whom he qualified for the promotion playoffs. He successively served as head coach of another Serie C club, Viterbese Castrense, between July and October 2017.

Ascoli

On 25 August 2020, after three years of inactivity, he was named new head coach of

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 Ascoli, this being Bertotto's first coaching experience in the Italian second division. He was dismissed on 29 November 2020 due to poor results following a 1–2 league defeat to

Giugliano

On 4 October 2023, after three years without a job, Bertotto returned to management as the new head coach of

relegation-battling club

Personal life

On 4 November 2020 he tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertotto, Valerio 1973 births Living people Footballers from Turin Italian men's footballers Italy men's international footballers Men's association football defenders US Alessandria Calcio 1912 players Udinese Calcio players Siena FC SSD players Venezia FC players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players FC Pistoiese SSD managers ACR Messina managers Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC managers