Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte ( born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur.

Conte began his career with the youth team of his hometown club Lecce and made his Serie A debut with the first team on 6 April 1986, aged 16, in a 1–1 draw against Pisa.

Under manager Carlo Mazzone, he became a fundamental player for the squad.

In 1987, he fractured his tibia, running the risk of a career-ending injury.

During the 1988–89 season, he was back on the pitch, and scored his first Serie A goal on 11 November 1989 in 3–2 loss to Napoli.

He amassed a total of 99 appearances and 1 goal for Lecce.

Conte is credited with the repopularisation of the 3–5–2 formation after it had seen very limited use since its heyday at the 1990 World Cup.

Conte was signed by Juventus manager Giovanni Trapattoni in 1991 (Conte refers to Trapattoni as being his "second father"), debuting on 17 November 1991 against cross-city rivals Torino.

He also played for the Italy national team and was a participant at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000, where, on both occasions, Italy finished runners-up.

During his Juventus playing career, Conte won five Serie A titles, the 1994–95 Coppa Italia, the 1992–93 UEFA Cup and the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League, as well as four Supercoppa Italiana titles, the 1996 UEFA Super Cup, the 1996 Intercontinental Cup (which he missed due to injury) and the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup, winning all possible top tier club titles, aside from the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Conte also played for the Italy national team, making his debut on 27 May 1994, in a 2–0 friendly win over Finland at age 24, under Arrigo Sacchi.

He was a member of the Italian squads for both the 1994 FIFA World Cup under Sacchi, and UEFA Euro 2000 under Dino Zoff, achieving runners-up medals in both tournaments.

In total, he made 20 international appearances for Italy between 1994 and 2000, scoring twice.

Conte was regarded as a quick, combative, energetic, and tactically versatile footballer throughout his career who could play anywhere in midfield but was usually deployed as a central, box-to-box, or defensive midfielder, and occasionally on the right flank, due to his crossing ability.

Although he was not the most naturally talented or skilful footballer from a technical standpoint (although he was able to improve in this area with time), Conte was a hard-working, consistent and intelligent player, with an innate ability to read the game, who was mainly known for his leadership, strong mentality, accurate tackling, stamina, and vision; these attributes, coupled with his solid first touch, work-rate, tenacity, and a tendency to make offensive runs into the area, enabled him to aid his team effectively both defensively and offensively, and gave him the ability to distribute the ball and start attacking moves after retrieving possession, as well as the capacity to turn defence into an attack.

Due to his ball-striking from distance and ability to get forward, he also scored some spectacular and decisive goals, often from volleys and strikes from outside the area.

He was also considered to be physically strong, good in the air and accurate with his head, despite not being particularly tall.

Despite his ability as a footballer, his career was often affected by injuries.

Conte also finished runner-up in the 1995 UEFA Cup Final with the club.

Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later became one of the most decorated and influential players in the history of Juventus having won, among others, five Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, one UEFA Champions League and one UEFA Cup, becoming also the team's captain from 1996 until 2001.

Due to his consistent performances, work-rate, leadership and tenacious playing style, he became an important figure with the club's fans, and was later named the team's captain under Marcello Lippi in 1996, following the departure of the club's previous captain Gianluca Vialli, and before the promotion of Alessandro Del Piero to the role.

He missed out on the Euro 1996 squad after sustaining an injury in the 1996 Champions League final.

Along with his team, Conte also finished as runner-up in the Champions League on three other occasions, as Juventus lost the Champions League finals of 1997, 1998 and 2003.

In the latter final, against A.C. Milan, he came on as a substitute in the second half and produced Juventus's best chance of the match, hitting the crossbar with a header, although Juventus eventually lost the match on penalties following a 0–0 draw after extra time.

During the 1998–99 season, when Del Piero suffered a severe knee injury, Conte returned to the captaincy, a position which he maintained until the 2001–02 season.

Conte scored a bicycle kick in Italy's opening match of Euro 2000, which ended in a 2–1 win against Turkey, although he later suffered an injury in a 2–0 win against Romania in the quarter-finals of the competition, following a challenge from Gheorghe Hagi, which ruled him out for the remainder of the competition.

He remained with the Turin-based club until his retirement in 2004.

During his 13 seasons with Juventus, he made a total of 295 appearances and 29 goals in Serie A, and 418 appearances and 43 goals in all competitions.

After retiring from playing, Conte worked as an assistant manager for Siena alongside Luigi De Canio in the 2005–06 season.

His managerial career started in 2006, leading Bari to a Serie B title, and Siena to promotion from the same division two years later.

In July 2006, he was appointed coach of Serie B side Arezzo.

After a series of disappointing results, he was sacked on 31 October 2006.

On 13 March 2007, Conte was reinstated as Arezzo head coach as his predecessor Maurizio Sarri failed to gain any significant improvement with the club mired in a relegation struggle.

He subsequently led the team to five consecutive wins, securing 19 points from 7 matches, which allowed the Tuscan side to close the points gap between them and safety.

Despite this turnaround in form, Arezzo was relegated to Serie C1 on the final day of the league season, finishing one point behind Spezia.

On 27 December 2007, Conte was appointed by Bari to replace Giuseppe Materazzi for the second half of their 2007–08 Serie B campaign.

He took over at Juventus in 2011 and won three consecutive Serie A titles before taking charge of the Italy national team in 2014 until UEFA Euro 2016 where he led them to the quarter-finals.

He then became Chelsea manager and led them to the Premier League title in his first season in charge, then winning the FA Cup in his second season but being dismissed as they finished fifth in the league.

Conte joined Inter Milan a year later, leading the team to the UEFA Europa League final in his first season, then winning the 2020–21 Serie A title in his second season before stepping down in mutual consent.

He joined Tottenham Hotspur in November 2021, but left in March 2023, by mutual consent.