Pierluigi Casiraghi

Pierluigi Casiraghi (Italian pronunciation: [ˌpjɛrluˈiːdʒi kaziˈraːɡi]; born 4 March 1969), also known as Gigi Casiraghi (IPA: [ˈdʒiːdʒi]), is an Italian football coach and former player who played as a striker. Since retirement he has become a football manager, and was Gianfranco Zola's assistant manager at Birmingham City until Zola resigned on 17 April 2017. Casiraghi left his duties at Birmingham the following day.[1]

Pierluigi Casiraghi
Pierluigi Casiraghi with Lazio in 1993.
Personal information
Date of birth (1969-03-04) 4 March 1969
Place of birth Monza, Italy
Height 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1989 Monza 94 (28)
1989–1993 Juventus 98 (20)
1993–1998 Lazio 140 (41)
1998–2000 Chelsea 10 (1)
Total 342 (91)
National team
1991–1998 Italy 44 (13)
Teams managed
2002–2003 Monza (youth team)
2003–2004 Legnano
2006–2010 Italy U21
2014–2015 Cagliari (assistant)
2015–2016 Al-Arabi (assistant)
2016–2017 Birmingham City (assistant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Casiraghi began his playing career in Italy in 1985, with Monza. He later played for Juventus, and Lazio, before ending his career with Chelsea in the Premier League. He retired after failing to recover from a cruciate ligament injury sustained in 1998. Casiraghi was a member of the Italy national football team that reached the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final, and was also a member of Italy's UEFA Euro 1996 squad.

After retiring, he began his managerial career in 2002, first with the Monza youth side, later also coaching Legnano, and the Italy U-21 side. In 2014, he worked as an assistant manager for Cagliari.

Club career

Italy
Gianluca Gaudenzi and Casiraghi with Monza during the 1988–89 Serie A season

Casiraghi was born in Monza, Lombardy, and began his career with his hometown side, AC Monza, in 1985. The side were relegated to Serie C in his first season, but he helped them achieve promotion back to Serie B in 1988. He moved to Serie A giants Juventus in 1989, having scored 28 goals in 94 games for Monza.[2]

His goalscoring record in Turin was modest, achieving a best tally of 8 goals in 24 appearances in the 1990–91 season and a total of 20 in 98 games for the club. While at Juventus, he helped the side win two UEFA Cups (in 1990 and 1993) and one Italian Cup, also in 1990. He scored in the first leg of the 1990 UEFA Cup Final to help the Turin club defeat rivals Fiorentina. He earned his first international cap for Italy during his spell with Juventus.[2]

He signed for Lazio in 1993 and scored 41 goals in a five-year spell. His most successful season was in 1996–97, when he scored 14 goals in 28 Serie A games. With Lazio, he won another Italian Cup, in 1998. He found his opportunities limited in his final season, with manager Sven-Göran Eriksson preferring Alen Bokšić and Roberto Mancini in attack and sought a move away.

Chelsea

Casiraghi joined English side Chelsea in May 1998 for £5.4 million. His time in west London proved luckless, and ultimately only scored one competitive goal for the club in ten appearances, which came against Liverpool in a 1–1 draw at Anfield.[3][4] His Chelsea career was cut short by a cruciate ligament injury sustained during a collision with West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop in November 1998.[5] Despite going through ten operations, he was unable to make a comeback and his contract with the club was terminated in July 2000, with Chelsea receiving an insurance payout.[4] Casiraghi criticised the club for not helping him,[6] and in August 2000 Casiraghi explored legal action against Chelsea for unpaid wages after his contract was terminated early.[7]

International career

As an Italian international, Casiraghi won 7 caps, scoring 1 goal, for the Italy national under-21 football team between 1988 and 1990, and 44 caps, scoring 13 goals, for the Italy senior side between 1991 and 1998. He made his senior international debut on 13 February 1991, in a 1–0 win against Belgium, scoring his first goal for Italy in a 4–0 win over San Marino on 19 February 1992. He was a member of the Italy squad that reached the final of USA 94 under manager Arrigo Sacchi, playing in the group games against Norway and Mexico and the semi-final against Bulgaria. He was also a member of the Italy side at Euro 96, scoring both goals in a 2–1 win against Russia,[8] but was guilty of missing a late chance against the Czech Republic that could have proved vital to the group standings, and as such the side was knocked out in the first round.[9] Despite sealing Italy's qualification for the 1998 World Cup with the only goal in the second leg play-off against Russia to advance 2–1 on aggregate on 15 November 1997,[10] he failed to make the squad for the final tournament under Cesare Maldini.[11]

Style of play

Although he was primarily deployed as a centre-forward, Casiraghi was an athletic player, who was also capable of playing anywhere along the front line, due to his versatility. Throughout his career, he became renowned for his ability in the air, and for having a penchant for scoring acrobatic goals as a striker. Although he was not particularly skilful from a technical standpoint, he was a strong, hardworking, and prolific forward, with good movement off the ball, who often utilised his physical strength to hold up the ball with his back to goal in order to open up defences, and was also capable of creating space for his teammates with his attacking runs, which in turn enabled him to provide them with assists.[2][12][13][14][15][16]

Managerial career

Casiraghi became manager of Italian Serie C2 side A.C. Legnano in May 2003. On 24 July 2006, he was appointed joint coach of the Italian Under-21 national team alongside former Chelsea teammate Gianfranco Zola, succeeding Claudio Gentile.[17]

In his coaching tenure, Casiraghi led the Azzurrini into the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, ending in fifth place after having eliminated Spain U-21 in the qualifying phase. He was successively confirmed for the 2008 Olympic Games campaign, which ended in the quarter-finals with a 3–2 loss to Belgium. He also helped the Italian youth side to win the 2008 Toulon tournament. In the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, his side, having lost several key players through injury and suspension, narrowly lost 1–0 to Germany in the semi-finals.

In December 2016, he joined EFL Championship club Birmingham City, again reuniting with Gianfranco Zola, as he done at Al-Arabi in Qatar.

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League Cup Continental Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Monza1984–85Serie B————
1985–8612110—141
1986–8725652—52
1987–88301240—40
1988–8927941—3110
Total 9428143—10831
Juventus1989–90Serie A2348293409
1990–91248422131111
1991–9233781—418
1992–931816153295
Total 982026616714133
Lazio1993–94Serie A2642031315
1994–95341263704715
1995–96281430443518
1996–9724842313111
1997–9828360104447
Total 14041215271018856
Chelsea1998–99Premier League101—401521
Career total 3429061144717452121

International
Source:[18]
Italy national team
YearAppsGoals
199120
199261
199352
1994102
199551
199695
199762
199810
Total4413

Honours

Club

Monza[19]

Juventus[2][19]

Lazio[19]

Chelsea[19]

International

Italy[20]

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References
  1. "Blues backroom departures". www.BCFC.com. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. Stefano Bedeschi (4 March 2014). "Gli eroi in bianconero: Pierluigi CASIRAGHI" (in Italian). Tutto Juve. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  3. "Liverpool 1 – 1 Chelsea". 4TheGame. 4 October 1998. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
  4. Sean Ingle (3 August 2000). "The end for Casiraghi". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  5. "Casiraghi vents anger at Chelsea". The Independent. 25 July 2000. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  6. "Casiraghi vents anger at Chelsea". The Independent. 26 July 2000.
  7. Thomson, Steve (3 August 2000). "Casiraghi pay row" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  8. "Instinctive Casiraghi helps Italy sink Russia". UEFA.com. 6 October 2003.
  9. "1996: GERMANIA" (in Italian). Storie di Calcio. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  10. "World Cup 2018: Italy and the nightmare of their play-off against Sweden". bbc.com. 10 November 2017.
  11. "Nazionale in cifre: Casiraghi, Pierluigi". figc.it (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  12. Chris Flanagan (11 January 2018). "Serie A in the '90s: when Baggio, Batistuta and Italian football ruled the world". FourFourTwo. Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  13. Piero Serantoni (7 March 1995). "Casiraghi: bravo Zeman a credere in me" (in Italian). La Stampa. p. 31.
  14. Bruno Bernardi (23 March 1992). "Casiraghi, l'azzurro come trampolino" (in Italian). La Stampa. p. 3.
  15. Andrea Galdi (7 January 1997). "CASIRAGHI, IL BOMBER RITROVATO" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  16. FABRIZIO BOCCA (6 June 1992). "ANCORA FUORI VIALLI, IL MISTERO GLORIOSO" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  17. "Casiraghi and Zola take on Italy Under-21 roles". Soccernet. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2007.
  18. "Casiraghi, Pierluigi" (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  19. "Pierluigi Casiraghi". Eurosport. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  20. "P. Casiraghi". Soccerway. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
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