Andrea Stramaccioni


Andrea Stramaccioni is an Italian football manager and former player.
A football coach with experiences as a youth coach of Roma and Inter Milan, he was put in charge of first team duties on 26 March 2012 to replace Claudio Ranieri. He is also a 2010 law graduate.

Playing career

A former defender, his playing career was cut short by a serious knee injury while with Bologna in the 1994–95 season.

Early years

He graduated in law at La Sapienza University of Rome, the largest Italian university.
After retiring as a footballer, Stramaccioni went on to become a football coach for a number of amateur youth teams. At the age of 25, he won a provincial title with Rome-based youth team Az Sport, then being hired by Romulea where he worked until 2005. Stramaccioni obtained the licence for youth coaches in 2003.

Coaching career

Youth coach at Roma

In 2005, Stramaccioni joined the youth coaching staff at Roma, winning two national titles: Giovanissimi Nazionali in 2007 and Allievi Nazionali in 2010. On 9 May 2009, Stramaccioni obtained a UEFA A coaching licence, made him eligible to work as a head coach of Lega Pro teams or as a vice-coach of Serie A and Serie B clubs. Stramaccioni, however, did not have a UEFA Pro Licence, he could only work as a care-taker in the first and second division of Italy. On that day, Roberto Samaden, Inter youth academy director since 2006, also obtained the same licence. Samaden met Stramaccioni in the course and gave Stramaccioni a job in Inter two years later.

Inter Milan Primavera

After the departure of Fulvio Pea, who left Inter Milan Youth Sector in mid-2011 to become the new Sassuolo head coach, Samaden called Stramaccioni to offer him the vacant position at the club, which he accepted. Inter Primavera was the first in the Group B of its own league as of round 21, the last round Stramaccioni was in charge, ahead Milan with one more point and Varese with two points. Inter round 22 match was rescheduled and Milan also had a match rescheduled. Primavera had a record of 13 wins, four draws, four losses, 43 goals scored, and 19 goals scored against. Stramaccioni also led Inter Primavera to the final of the 2011–12 NextGen series, after defeating Sporting Clube de Portugal in the Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa, Leiria, and Olympique de Marseille on 21 March in Griffin Park, London. The final was played on 25 March in Matchroom Stadium. The match finished in a 1–1 draw and Inter beat AFC Ajax 5–3 in the resulting penalty shoot-out.

Inter Milan

On 26 March 2012, Inter manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked and Stramaccioni was promoted to manager of the first team as caretaker, with Giuseppe Baresi returning to act as assistant coach. He led Inter to sixth place and a success in the Derby della Madonnina against Milan that cost Inter's crosstown rivals the Serie A title; his results led club owner Massimo Moratti to confirm him as head coach for the 2012–13 season, as well. The FIGC allowed Stramaccioni to sign the contract without a UEFA Pro Licence as he was admitted to 2012–13 coaching course in order to obtain the licence in June 2013. On 3 November 2012, Stramaccioni guided Inter to a 3–1 away victory over the previous season's champions, Juventus, claiming " result will send a signal, as we came here to the Juventus Stadium against a team unbeaten in 49 rounds and attacked them with a trident". After 14 months in charge of Inter and a difficult 2012–13 Serie A campaign which saw them finish in 9th place and thus fail to qualify for Europe for the first time in 15 seasons, the club announced on 24 May 2013 that Stramaccioni had been sacked and replaced by Walter Mazzarri.

Udinese

On 4 June 2014, Stramaccioni was named as new head coach of Udinese. On 1 June 2015, he stepped down as Udinese head coach after just one year.

Panathinaikos

On 8 November 2015, Stramaccioni was appointed as manager of Superleague Greece club Panathinaikos, signing a one-and-a-half-year deal until the end of the 2016–17 season.
The start of Panathinaikos' 2016-17 campaign in all competitions proved far beyond the fans' expectations, as it was characterized by a poor run of results, including defeats to Olympiacos, Xanthi and Ajax, and marked by the team's elimination from the UEFA Europa League group stage with only one point in the first five fixtures. As a result of increasing fan outrage, further aggravated after Panathinaikos' 2-1 Greek Cup defeat to OFI, chairman Giannis Alafouzos decided to terminate Stramaccioni's contract with the club on 1 December 2016, replacing him later that day with Marinos Ouzounidis.

Sparta Prague

On 28 May 2017, he joined Czech club Sparta Prague, signing a two-year contract. With Stramaccioni came his whole team of co-workers from previous clubs consisting of five nationalities. In July 2017, the club was eliminated in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League after losing both matches against Crvena zvezda Beograd. Three months later, Sparta were eliminated in the fourth round of the Czech Cup after losing at home 2–4 ) against Baník Ostrava. On 6 March 2018, Stramaccioni was sacked as the head coach of Sparta following "a disappointing start to the second part of the season and overall bad results this season".

Esteghlal

On 13 June 2019, Stramaccioni was appointed as coach of Iranian club Esteghlal, signing a two-year contract. He later revealed in an interview that after having a conversation with former Iran national volleyball team coach Julio Velasco, he was convinced to accept a coaching job in Iran. Upon being appointed, Stramaccioni declared that Meysam Teymouri, Farshad Mohammadi Mehr, Armin Sohrabian, Rouhollah Bagheri and Reza Karimi were not part of his plans for the coming season. Instead, he requested to sign two former Serie A players, Cheick Diabaté and Hrvoje Milić.
Stramaccioni lost his first competitive game as Esteghlal's coach against Machine Sazi. On 28 December his team beat Tractor 4–2; with this victory, Esteghlal became the first team to reach over a total of 1000 points in all-time Persian Gulf Pro League table.
On 8 December, Stramaccioni resigned as the manager of Esteghlal as the club failed to pay the wages of coaching staff due to the restrictions for transferring money outside Iran caused by the sanctions; however he did not close the door for a possible return to the club if the problems are solved. Following his departure, many Esteghlal fans protested in front of the offices of Iran’s Ministry of Sport and Youth which own the club in order to express their disagreements with the clubs board of management and Stramaccioni's departure. On 2 January 2020, the club officially announced his departure from Esteghlal and the negotiations for his return were unsuccessful.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Managerial

Inter Milan