.jpg) Reja withLazio in 2014 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Edoardo Reja[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1945-10-10)10 October 1945 (age 80) | ||
| Place of birth | Lucinico,Gorizia, Italy | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1961 | San Lorenzo di Mossa | ||
| 1961–1963 | SPAL | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1963–1968 | SPAL | 70 | (2) |
| 1968–1973 | Palermo | 124 | (1) |
| 1973–1976 | Alessandria | 76 | (1) |
| 1976–1977 | Benevento | 7 | (0) |
| Total | 277 | (4) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1979–1980 | Molinella | ||
| 1980–1981 | Monselice | ||
| 1981 | Pordenone | ||
| 1982–1983 | Monselice | ||
| 1983–1984 | Pro Gorizia | ||
| 1984–1985 | Treviso | ||
| 1985 | Treviso | ||
| 1985–1986 | Mestre | ||
| 1987 | Varese | ||
| 1987–1989 | Pescara (youth team) | ||
| 1989–1990 | Pescara | ||
| 1990–1992 | Cosenza | ||
| 1992–1993 | Verona | ||
| 1993–1994 | Bologna | ||
| 1994–1995 | Lecce | ||
| 1996–1997 | Brescia | ||
| 1997–1998 | Torino | ||
| 1999–2001 | Vicenza | ||
| 2001–2002 | Genoa | ||
| 2003 | Catania | ||
| 2003–2004 | Cagliari | ||
| 2005–2009 | Napoli | ||
| 2009–2010 | Hajduk Split | ||
| 2010–2012 | Lazio | ||
| 2014 | Lazio | ||
| 2015–2016 | Atalanta | ||
| 2019–2022 | Albania | ||
| 2023 | Gorica | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Edoardo Reja (born 10 October 1945) is an Italian professionalfootball manager and formerplayer who was most recently the manager of Slovenian clubGorica.
After a career as amidfielder spent mostly withSPAL andPalermo, he began working as a manager. He won four promotions fromSerie B, including as champions withBrescia (1997) andVicenza (2000), as well asCagliari (2004) andNapoli (2007).
Reja managed Vicenza, Napoli,Lazio andAtalanta inSerie A.
Reja began his career with theSPAL youth squad, coached byPaolo Mazza, playing inmidfield alongside lifelong friendFabio Capello, and other notable players such as Louis Pasetti and Adriano Zanier. Together, they helped the team win the 1963–64 Campionato Nazionale Primavera. In 1965, Reja joined Capello inSerie A, in the SPAL first team, earning an appearance with the Italian U-23 squad. Reja played for two more teams,US Città di Palermo andAlessandria in a long career that lasted until 1975, playing a total of 124Serie A matches.[2]
Reja started his coaching career in 1979 serving as boss ofSerie D team Molinella. Next year he then coachedMonselice ofSerie C2. In 1989, he coached his firstSerie B team,Pescara, of which he was previously the youth squad boss. He successively gained good successes in the same league withCosenza,Lecce andBrescia, where he won the championship. In fact, he launched the career of notable footballerAndrea Pirlo at Brescia, where Pirlo was a regular member of the squad. However, Reja opted to give up the opportunity to coach Brescia inSerie A, preferring to accept an offer fromTorino, another Serie B team, where he then missed promotion defeated in the promotion playoffs toPerugia after apenalty shootout.
During the 1998–1999 season, he was appointed coach ofSerie A clubVicenza, thus making his debut in a top division team, but was unable to save the team from relegation. Next year he remained at Vicenza and led his team back to Serie A, but promptly relegated one more time in 2001. In 2001–2002, he replacedFranco Scoglio at the helm ofGenoa (Serie B), but to be fired himself only three months later. On 2002–2003, he was appointed in the mid-season byCatania bossLuciano Gaucci to replaceJohn Toshack. In November 2003, he replacedGian Piero Ventura atCagliari and guided therossoblu to second place in theSerie B and promotion toSerie A, but was not confirmed.
In January 2005, Reja was appointed as the manager ofNapoli, again after Ventura's dismissal.[3] He led Napoli to winSerie C1, obtaining promotion to Serie B in 2006, then a second consecutive promotion toSerie A in 2007 – returning theNaples team to the top flight for the first time since 2001.
In his first Serie A campaign with Napoli, Reja guided them to anIntertoto Cup qualification spot, and was confirmed at the helm of Napoli in the2008–09 Serie A season. He managed to lead thePartenopei to the second qualification round of theUEFA Cup, where they were defeated byS.L. Benfica. Napoli rose up to first place in theSerie A table in the first half of the season. After two points in nine games caused the team to fall into the bottom half, Reja was sacked on 10 March 2009, following a 0–2 home loss toLazio, and replaced by formerItalian team bossRoberto Donadoni.[4][5]
After a short successful spell as head coach of Croatian sideHajduk Split from August 2009 to February 2010, Reja opted to quit his job in Split in order to become the new manager of SS Lazio.[6] He was unveiled as the new Lazio head coach the following day, replacingDavide Ballardini.[7] He turned the fortunes of a club in dismay, guiding it out of the relegation zone and into a mid-table finish in the season.
The 2010–11 season for Lazio started in an astonishing way, with the team surprisingly heading Serie A with a four-point advantage to runners-up Inter after nine games, thanks to Reja's abilities in relaunching players such asMauro Zárate,Cristian Ledesma andStefano Mauri, as well as introducing new key signings such as Brazilian internationalHernanes. On 17 May 2012 he resigned from the job, despite the president's pleas for him to stay on.[8]
After the sacking ofVladimir Petković, Reja returned to Lazio for a second spell on 4 January 2014, completing the season in ninth place. On 12 June 2014, he resigned from his role, withStefano Pioli appointed as his replacement the same day.[9]
Reja was appointed trainer ofAtalanta on 4 March 2015 with the team three points above the relegation zone after the dismissal ofStefano Colantuono.[10] His time at the club ended in May 2016, having saved them twice from relegation.[11]
On 17 April 2019,Albania signed Reja to a seven-month contract after fellow ItalianChristian Panucci was dismissed the previous month.[12][13]
On 2 March 2023, just a few months after the end of his contract with the Albania national team, Reja returned into management as the new head coach ofSlovenian PrvaLiga bottom-placed clubND Gorica.[14] On 17 April 2023, after only seven games in charge, his contract with Gorica was mutually terminated.[15]
Reja was born in the village of Lucinico (Slovene:Ločnik), now a suburb ofGorizia (Slovene:Gorica), near the border between Italy and Slovenia. His father was a Slovenian from the village ofVipolže inBrda, Slovenia, while his mother wasFriulian.[16][17][18][19] He is fluent in Italian,Slovenian, andFriulan.[16][20][21] However, his levels of fluency vary: while he is able to speak the standard form of Italian, he only speaks a regional variety of Slovenian, strongly influenced by his nativeBrda dialect.[22]
He is close friends withFabio Capello.[23] Reja has been married to his wife Livia since 1969; he met his wife while rooming with Capello inFerrara, at the time playing for SPAL.[24]
| Team | Nat. | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Pordenone |  | 1 July 1981 | 23 November 1981 | 14 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 014.29 |
| Monselice | | 1 July 1982 | 30 June 1983 | 40 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 027.50 |
| Pro Gorizia | | 7 July 1983 | 30 June 1984 | 40 | 9 | 13 | 18 | 022.50 |
| Treviso | | 30 June 1984 | 25 February 1985 | 27 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 018.52 |
| Treviso | | 15 April 1985 | 12 June 1985 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 000.00 |
| Mestre | | 23 November 1985 | 3 June 1986 | 25 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 028.00 |
| Varese | | 7 March 1987 | 9 June 1987 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 018.18 |
| Pescara | | 25 September 1989 | 4 June 1990 | 35 | 13 | 10 | 12 | 037.14 |
| Cosenza | | 1 November 1990 | 16 June 1992 | 71 | 24 | 28 | 19 | 033.80 |
| Verona | | 16 June 1992 | 14 June 1993 | 43 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 027.91 |
| Bologna | | 29 November 1993 | 18 June 1994 | 25 | 14 | 3 | 8 | 056.00 |
| Lecce | | 16 November 1994 | 30 January 1995 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 022.22 |
| Brescia | | 26 February 1996 | 30 June 1997 | 53 | 23 | 16 | 14 | 043.40 |
| Torino | | 7 October 1997 | 30 June 1998 | 33 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 045.45 |
| Vicenza | | 3 February 1999 | 22 June 2001 | 95 | 37 | 20 | 38 | 038.95 |
| Genoa | | 29 December 2001 | 4 March 2002 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 000.00 |
| Catania | | 29 January 2003 | 6 April 2003 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 022.22 |
| Cagliari | | 24 November 2003 | 30 June 2004 | 30 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 056.67 |
| Napoli | | 16 January 2005 | 10 March 2009 | 189 | 92 | 52 | 45 | 048.68 |
| Hajduk Split |  | 18 August 2009 | 9 February 2010 | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 064.71 |
| Lazio | | 10 February 2010 | 2 June 2012 | 106 | 52 | 20 | 34 | 049.06 |
| Lazio | | 4 January 2014 | 12 June 2014 | 25 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 044.00 |
| Atalanta | | 4 March 2015 | 14 June 2016 | 53 | 14 | 20 | 19 | 026.42 |
| Albania |  | 17 April 2019 | 31 December 2022 | 38 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 036.84 |
| Gorica |  | 2 March 2023 | 17 April 2023 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 028.57 |
| Total | 1,010 | 391 | 292 | 327 | 038.71 | |||
SPAL
Alessandria Calcio 1912
Brescia
Vicenza
Napoli
