Massimo Ficcadenti (born 6 November 1967) is an Italian football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

Massimo Ficcadenti
Ficcadenti as Cesena manager
Personal information
Full name Massimo Ficcadenti
Date of birth (1967-11-06) 6 November 1967 (age 57)
Place of birth Fermo, Italy
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1989 Sambenedettese 68 (2)
1989–1992 Messina 90 (5)
1992–1997 Verona 132 (9)
1997–2000 Torino 48 (2)
2000–2001 Ravenna 2 (0)
Managerial career
2001–2002 Fiorenzuola
2002 Avellino
2003–2004 Pistoiese
2004–2006 Verona
2007 Reggina
2009–2010 Piacenza
2010–2011 Cesena
2011 Cagliari
2012 Cagliari
2014–2015 FC Tokyo
2016–2018 Sagan Tosu
2019–2021 Nagoya Grampus
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

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Ficcadenti was born in Fermo. He started his playing career with Sambenedettese, where he played from 1985 to 1989. He then signed for Messina, playing for the Sicilian side for a total of three seasons before to join Verona in 1992. At Verona, he also had the opportunity to make his Serie A debut; he stayed with the gialloblu for a total of five seasons before moving at Torino in 1997. He left Torino for Ravenna in 2000, and retired from active football one year later to become a coach.

Coaching career

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Ficcadenti's first coaching experience came in 2001 as boss of Serie C2 team Fiorenzuola.[1] Ficcadenti, at the helm of a club under serious financial struggles, ended the regular season in 17th place, but later lost the relegation play-offs to Trento. Despite the Serie D relegation, his work at Fiorenzuola was praised by a number of pundits, given the circumstances, and he was successively appointed by Avellino of Serie C1, being however fired before the beginning of the season due to poor performances in the Coppa Italia Serie C and a number of friendly matches.[1] In June 2003, he was then appointed as head coach of Pistoiese, another Serie C1 team. As well as in Fiorenzuola, Ficcadenti found a club under financial troubles, and a squad mainly composed by young and loaned players, the one with the lowest age in all the professional leagues that year; despite that, Pistoiese narrowly missed a spot in the Serie B promotion play-offs, and ended in a good 11th place.[1]

Pistoiese's performances convinced Serie B club Verona to offer him their head coaching position in 2004.[1] In his first year with Verona, Ficcadenti ended in a mid-table place, after having been involved in the promotion fight for the first half of the season.[1] The 2005–06 season, with a weaker team that lost some of their more notable players, saw Verona struggling in the relegation battle, but saving themselves from a Serie C1 fall in the end.[1] The following season proved to be much harder for Ficcadenti, as the club lost several key players such as Mattia Cassani and striker Adaílton. Ficcadenti was then sacked in December 2006 because of poor results, being replaced by Giampiero Ventura who however did not manage to save the club from relegation.

On 23 June 2007, several news announced Reggina's appointment of Ficcadenti as new head coach, despite the fact he was still contracted with his previous club Verona.[2] However Verona did not give Ficcadenti permission to make the move, and on 27 June, the club announced on their website to have reappointed him as their head coach for the upcoming 2007–08 Serie C1 campaign.[3] The issue finally came to an end on 1 July, when Ficcadenti rescinded his contract with Verona and Reggina announced on their website to have appointed him as coach.[2] He however made a very poor start with Reggina, failing to achieve a single win in the first ten matchdays; a shock 3–1 home loss to Livorno, who was three points behind the amaranto before the match kick-off, convinced Reggina chairman Lillo Foti to sack Ficcadenti on 1 November 2007.[4]

In February 2009, Ficcadenti returned to Hellas Verona, serving as transfer market consultant to new club owner and chairman Giovanni Martinelli.[5]

In November 2009, he returned into management, being appointed head coach of Serie B side Piacenza as a replacement for dismissed trainer Fabrizio Castori.[6]

In June 2010, Ficcadenti signed for newly promoted Serie A club Cesena.[7] After a hugely successful season which culminated with Cesena achieving 15th place in Serie A, 7 points clear of relegation, it was decided by mutual consent not to renew Ficcadenti's contract, thereby making him a free agent as of May 2011.[8]

On 16 August 2011 he was introduced as new head coach of Serie A club Cagliari, taking over from dismissed predecessor Roberto Donadoni.[9] On 8 November 2011 he was sacked following a winless run in their past five matches in the season.[10] On 11 March 2012, after sacking Davide Ballardini, Cagliari Calcio recalled him to coach the team, struggling for remaining in Serie A.[11] He left the club by mutual consent on 2 October 2012 after a dismal start to the new season that left Cagliari bottom-placed in the league table.[12]

In January 2014, he began an overseas career at FC Tokyo replacing Ranko Popovic. His two-years tenure ended in November 2015, after the team finished the J1 League at the 4th place, which meant they missed the right to participate in both J1 final championships, and the AFC Champions League 2016 playoff match.[13]

In 2016 season, he got a new job as manager of Sagan Tosu,[14] and served until October 2018.[15]

In the fall of 2019 Ficcadenti replaced Yahiro Kazama as manager of Nagoya Grampus.[16]

Managerial statistics

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As of 4 December 2021[17]
Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Pistoiese 2003 2004 34 11 11 12 032.35
Hellas Verona 2004 2006 109 30 40 39 027.52
Reggina 2007 2007 11 1 5 5 009.09
Piacenza 2009 2010 28 11 11 6 039.29
Cesena 2010 2011 39 11 10 18 028.21
Cagliari Calcio 2011 2011 11 4 4 3 036.36
Cagliari Calcio 2012 2012 18 4 5 9 022.22
FC Tokyo 2014 2015 87 39 23 25 044.83
Sagan Tosu 2016 2018 122 40 34 48 032.79
Nagoya Grampus 2019 2021 97 53 20 24 054.64
Total 556 204 163 189 036.69

Honours

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Nagoya Grampus

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Hellastory.net. "La scheda di Massimo Ficcadenti" (in Italian). Retrieved 24 June 2007.
  2. ^ a b "Reggina appoint Ficcadenti". Football Italia. 23 June 2007. Archived from the original on 12 July 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2007.
  3. ^ "Hellas Verona Football Club smentisce di essere alla ricerca di un nuovo allenatore" (in Italian). Hellas Verona FC. 27 June 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
  4. ^ "Reggina sack Ficcadenti". Football Italian. 1 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 1 November 2007.
  5. ^ "Martinelli lotta contro il tempo" (in Italian). L'Arena. 1 February 2009. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  6. ^ "Comunicato Stampa" (in Italian). Piacenza Calcio. 11 November 2009. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
  7. ^ "Massimo Ficcadenti nuovo allenatore del Cesena" (in Italian). AC Cesena. 12 June 2010. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  8. ^ "Ufficale: Cesena, Ficcadenti dice addio" (in Italian). tuttomercatoweb. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  9. ^ "Massimo Ficcadenti è da oggi il nuovo allenatore del Cagliari". Cagliari Calcio (in Italian). 16 August 2011. Archived from the original on 12 May 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  10. ^ "Massimo Ficcadenti non è più l'allenatore del Cagliari". Cagliari Calcio (in Italian). 8 November 2011. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  11. ^ "E' ufficiale: Cellino esonera anche Ballardini. Da domani Ficcadenti si riprende il Cagliari" (in Italian). L'Unione Sarda. Retrieved 11 March 2012.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ "Nuovo corso" [New path]. Cagliari Calcio. 2 October 2012. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
  13. ^ "Fc東京、フィッカデンティ監督の退任を発表。クラブ史上最多勝ち点獲得も…". 27 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Kyodo News+ | Japan's leading news agency".
  15. ^ "マッシモ前監督、J1鳥栖に別れ サポーターミーティングに参加" マッシモ前監督、J1鳥栖に別れ サポーターミーティングに参加 [The Former Manager MASSIMO joined the supporters' meeting, Farewell to J1 Sagan Tosu]. Nishi Nippon Sports (in Japanese). 19 October 2018. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  16. ^ "名古屋が風間監督の退任発表!後任は大幅方針転換でフィッカデンティ監督(GOAL)" 名古屋が風間監督の退任発表!後任は大幅方針転換でフィッカデンティ監督(GOAL) [Nagoya's manager, Kazama to step down. Successor Ficcadenti to bring big change]. GOAL (in Japanese). 23 September 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
  17. ^ J.League Data Site(in Japanese)
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