Topic: Marcello Lippi

Marcello Romeo Lippi, Commendatore OMRI, (born April 12, 1948) is an Italian World Cup-winning football manager and former player. Born in Viareggio, in northern Tuscany, he served as Italian national team head coach from July 16, 2004 to July 12, 2006 and led Italy to win the FIFA World Cup 2006. He was re-appointed as Italian head coach in the summer of 2008 after the team's failure to advance past the quarterfinals of Euro 2008.

In a professional career as a midfielder that started in 1969, Lippi spent most of his playing years with Sampdoria, where he played consecutively from 1969 to 1980, except for a year loan at Serie C side Savona. In 1980 he joined Pistoiese, being part of the arancioni 's only Serie A campaign in history.

Lippi retired from active football in 1982, at the age of 34, to pursue a coaching career. Despite never having played for Italy at senior level, Lippi gained a wealth of experience over the years playing in his country’s top flight as a central defender for Sampdoria. His rise to the top of the managerial tree also began at the Genoese club where he started as a youth-team coach. After various stints in Italy's lower divisions, became a head coach in Serie A in 1989 with Cesena. Lippi then moved on to Lucchese and Atalanta. The turning point for Lippi came in the 1993–94 season when he led Napoli to a place in the UEFA Cup. The achievement was all the more remarkable given the financial turmoil of a club still basking in the past triumphs inspired by Diego Maradona.