Helenio Herrera 'il Mago'

Born: 17 April 1916, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died: 9 November 1997, Venezia, Italia

Teams:

- Red Star Paris (France)
- Stade Francais
- Atletico Madrid (Spain)
- Valladolid (Spain)
- Sevilla (Spain)
- Belenenses
- Barcelona (Spain)
- Internazionale (Italy)
- AS Roma (Italy)
- Spanish national side
- Italian national side

Helenio Herrera was the best coach of his time. He lead Internazionale and Barcelona into great success. He also managed Spanish and Italian national teams among others. Herrera won three Scudetti, two European Cups and two Fairs Cup with Inter. He also won two championships at Barca.
He was born in Argentina of Spanish parents, but they moved to Morocco, when he was only 3 years old. There he grew up and learned how to play football. He moved to France to play and he played as a fullback. He got France´s citizenship.
As a coach Herrera was revolutionary. He was the first coach that planned players' diets, he also wanted to keep the team in overnight training camps as he believed that the team would be more unite when they are together all the time. Herrera was a fan of hard discipline and he was quite distant to players. As the father of catenaccio, he was ahead of his time in terms of tactics, but also in his wage bill.
He remains in our memories as the most successful coach of Inter´s history.

Alfredo Foni

Born: 20 January 1911, in Udine, Italy
Died: January 1985

Inter career:
1952/53
SERIE A 19-9-6 SCUDETTO

1953/54
SERIE A 20-11-3 SCUDETTO

1954/55
SERIE A 13-10-11 8th position

1968/69
SERIE A 14-8-8 4th position
COPPA ITALIA 0-3-0 16mi di finale

Total

Serie A 66-38-28
Coppa Italia 0-3-0

Alfredo Foni was a successful defender in his playing career. He won the Olympic gold in Berlin 1936 and the World Cup with Azzurri in 1938. He played most of his career in Juventus, but when he started to coach he coached several Italian teams. As a quite young coach he joined Inter in 1952 and he copied the “Swiss Bolt”-defence system, where an initial free man was used alongside sweeper.
He led Nerazzurri into immediate success winning two Scudetti in a row. The third season was a disappointment and in 1955 he left Milano. But 13 years later he came back after Helenio Herrera had left. In the meantime he had coached other Italian teams, including Gli Azzurri. He was also the director of the Swiss team for four years. Foni tried to bring glory back to Milano in his last spell, but he didn´t succeed and he ended his coaching career in 1969.

Giovanni Trapattoni

Born: 17 March 1939, in Cusano Milanino, Italy

1986/87
SERIE A 15-8-7 3rd position
UEFA CUP 4-3-1 quarterfinal
COPPA ITALIA 6-1-2 quarterfinal

1987/88
SERIE A 11-10-9 5th position
UEFA CUP 2-2-2 last 16
COPPA ITALIA 7-1-3 semifinal

1988/89
SERIE A 26-6-2 SCUDETTO
UEFA CUP 4-1-1 last 16
COPPA ITALIA 3-3-2 last 16

1989/90
SERIE A 17-10-7 3rd position
SUPERCOPPA ITALIANA 1-0-0 WINNERS
CHAMPIONS CUP 0-1-1 1st round
COPPA ITALIA 3-0-1 quarterfinal

1990/91
SERIE A 18-10-6 3rd position
UEFA CUP 6-3-3 WINNERS
COPPA ITALIA 3-0-1 last 16

TOTAL
SERIE A 87-44-31
CHAMPIONS CUP 0-1-1
UEFA CUP 16-9-7
COPPA ITALIA 22-5-9

TROPHIES:
Scudetto
Uefa Cup
Supercoppa Italiana

Giovanni Trapattoni was a top-class defender in Milan during his player career. He won lo scudetto and the European Cup with Rossoneri. After he hung up his boots he started to coach and has been coaching already 30 years. His tactics have always been based on defence and that has made him the most successful coach ever in Serie A. He led Juventus to six Scudetti and later on he won the record-breaking seventh title with Inter. He has also won the Bundesliga with Bayern München. He has also coached Milan, Fiorentina and Cagliari, which is the only team from where he has resigned.

As Italian national team coach he led Azzurri into a disaster in World Cup 2002, where Italy got knocked out by South Korea. Despite massive critics he managed to retain his job. It´s just matter of time when his long career ends as he already nears his 70th birthday. However he is highly rated in Inter afterall he´s the last one to bring us lo scudetto.

Marcello Lippi

99/2000
SERIE A 18-7-10 4th position
COPPA ITALIA 4-2-2 final

2000/01
CAMPIONATO 0-0-1
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 0-1-1 eliminated
UEFA CUP 2-0-0
COPPA ITALIA 1-1-0

TOTAL
SERIE A 18-7-11
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 0-1-1
UEFA CUP 2-0-0
COPPA ITALIA 5-3-2

The former Sampdoria captain started coaching soon after ending his player career in the beginning of the 80’s. He started off with youth teams and lower division teams. He has made the most of his achievements in Juventus, where he´s currently coaching and he has already won scudetto five times with bianconeri.

His spell at Inter was short. Lippi never managed to get Inter to play like he wanted or probably he didn´t have a clear vision of what he wanted. He was highly criticized after driving Roberto Baggio away from Inter. Finally after a humiliating knockout in the Champions League preliminary to Helsingborg and a disappointing start of the season in 2000, he was sacked by Inter.

Marco Tardelli

Born: 24 September 1954, in Capanne di Careggine, Italy

Inter career as a player:

Inter career as a coach:

2000/01
SERIE A 14-9-10 5th position
UEFA CUP 1-4-1 quarterfinal
COPPA ITALIA 0-0-1 quarterfinal

Tardelli followed Lippi as Inter coach, but he was unable to fix the problems left by Lippi. His inexperiency as a coach finally forced the former-Nerazzurri midfielder to leave Inter in the summer of 2001. As a player he was top-class, winning the World Cup with Azzurri in 1982, but his coaching skills are yet to be seen, even though he had a good spell at Italian U-21 side before coming to Inter.

In his player career Tardelli played a long spell in Juventus and joined Inter in the summer of 1985. He played two good seasons in Nerazzurri midfield, but he was already past his prime and in 1987 as the age of 33 he joined a Swiss side San Gallo, where he ended his career after one season.

Hector Cuper

Born: 16 November 1955, in Chabas, Argentina

Hector Raul Cuper was a gifted central defender and played almost his whole career in Ferrocarril Oeste, Argentina. He won two continental championships and played also 8 caps in Argentina´s national team. He ended his career in 1992 in Huracan and immediately started to coach the very same team. With Atletico Lanus he won the Conmebol Championship and Spanish club Mallorca wanted to sign him.

He coached Mallorca for two seasons and won the Spanish Super Cup with them. They also reached final of the European Cup Winners' Cup against Lazio, but lost it to the Italians. Cuper moved on to Valencia and led the team to two consecutive Spanish Super Cup victories and twice reaching the final of the Champions League, but failed to win it both times.

Since summer of 2001, Cuper was in charge of Inter. He immediately guided Nerazzurri almost to lo scudetto, just losing the championship in the final day of the campaign. But Inter were back on top of European football. In the spring 2003 Inter were again close to title, but didn´t reach it. Also in the Champions league Cuper brought Inter long, but failed to win local compatriots in the semi-final.

In the fall 2003 Inter’s season started a bit shaky, though Inter played a spectacular match against Arsenal at Highbury winning 0-3. In Serie A things didn’t go that good and in October Cuper was sacked by Massimo Moratti.
Cuper: "When we lose a game I don't speak with the players in the dressing-room. They feel bad and I feel even worse. "

These facts are written by Jake and all credit to him!