Arrigo Sacchi

Arrigo Sacchi is considered to be one of the great innovators of Italian football. Between 1987 and 19991 he took Milan to the top of the world, winning a scudetto, a Supercoppa, two European Cups, two Super UEFA Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.

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Born in Fusignano, near Ravenna, on April 1 1946, he began playing football in his home town and later had a stint with Baracca Lugo in Serie D but with modest results. In 1972 he began to manage Fusignano and in the 1970s he divided his time between work and coaching minor teams. In 1982 he was in charge of the Cesena Primavera team and took them to the scudetto. At this point he decided to become a manager full time.

After the coaching course of Coverciano, he was head coach first with Rimini in Serie C1 for two seasons, with a season with Fiorentina primavera in between. He then was head coach at Parma for two years starting from 1985. They had just been relegated to Serie C1 but he immediately got them promoted to Serie B in his first year and in his second Parma eliminated Milan in the Coppa Italia. Silvio Berlusconi, impressed, decided to give Sacchi the head coach position at Milan and in July 1987 he signed an annual contract.

Scepticism prevailed, not helped by initial results including being eliminated by Espanyol in the UEFA Cup Round of 16. After the first half of the season however Milan were second, three points behind Napoli. The gap then widened to five in February, as the Azzurri were flying thanks to the trio of forwards Diego Maradona, Careca and Bruno Giordano. In March Napoli started slowing down as fatigue, particularly of the midfield players, set in. Milan went to -4 and in the beginning of April, with Napoli losing to Juventus and Milan winning in Rome, the gap was just two points. On April 24, the Azzurri drew with Verona and Milan won the derby. Sunday May 1, the big match at the Stadio San Paolo. Milan won, Napoli collapsed and the scudetto was theirs.

Milan were not particularly interested in the scudetto in 1988-89 and concentrated on the European Cup. They were almost knocked out by Red Star Belgrade in the second round. After a 1-1 draw in Milan, in the second leg they were 1-0 down with 30 minutes to go. But a thick fog meant the game had to be abandoned and replayed. Milan drew 1-1 and then won on penalties. In the semi-final they had to play against Real Madrid. After a 1-1 draw away in the first leg, they crushed Real 5-0 in Milan and then went on to win the final 4-0 against Steaua București.

After winning the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup in 1989, in Serie A they started slowly and after the first half of the season they were fifth, four points behind leaders Napoli. But by mid-February they had caught up with the Neapolitans and on February 25 they were first after winning in Rome and Napoli losing to Inter. The two-point lead was reduced to one after a loss against Juventus but with four games left, Milan still held the slim lead. A week later however, Milan were held to a goalless draw at Bologna and Napoli took advantage of a coin hitting Alemao at Bergamo hence were awarded the win and joined them at the top. In the penultimate game Milan went to Verona whilst Napoli were in Bologna. The Neapolitans closed the game after 15 minutes with a 3-0 lead, Milan were winning 1-0 at the end of the first 45 minutes. But in the second half things changed. The Rossoneri appealed for two penalties that the ref ignored, got nervous, and Verona equalised. Milan lost it completely, got three red cards, and the home side scored towards the end of the game. Napoli had a two-point lead and kept it, winning their second scudetto. The Rossoneri however had a huge consolation prize in winning their second European Cup in Vienna against Benfica.

The following season Milan arrived second in Serie A behind Sampdoria, they again won the UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup, but Sacchi, tempted by the Italian Federation, did not renew his contract.

He signed as Italy's new manager in 1991. The Azzurri qualified for the World Cup in the USA and were in a Group with Ireland, Norway and Mexico. They surprisingly lost the first game against Ireland and after 20 minutes in the second match against Norway, goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca was shown the red card for having touched the ball with his hands outside of the box. Disaster was looming but a great game from Beppe Signori allowed Italy to win. The 1-1 draw against the Mexicans meant that the Azzurri arrived third and had to play against Nigeria in the Round of 16. 1-0 down, in ten men due to an absurd Gianfranco Zola red card, with 100 seconds left in the game, Italy were almost out of the competition. But then Roberto Baggio equalised and in the extra time scored again. The Azzurri qualified for the quarter finals where they beat Spain 2-1. In the semi’s against Bulgaria Baggio scored a brace and Italy won 2-1. Final versus Brazil. But there was a problem. Baggio was injured. He really should not have played the final, but he did despite being in terrible conditions. The game was decided on penalties and Baggio missed the decisive one.

Sacchi continued as head coach and took Italy to the European Championship in the UK in 1996. But Italy were eliminated in the group phase and that was basically the end of his experience with the Nazionale.

In December 1996 he went back to Milan taking over from Oscar Tabarez. But the Rossoneri were coming down from their long winning cycle and past their best they finished 11th. He left and took a year off. In 1998 he signed for Atletico Madrid but was sacked after seven months. He decided to retire but came back in January 2001 as Parma manager but after less than a month was forced to resign due to health problems.

He then became technical director for Parma for a couple of years, worked for Real Madrid from December 2004 to December 2005 and in 2010 was nominated technical coordinator for the Italy national youth teams. He left in 2014.

Since then he has done a bit of punditry for Mediaset but not full-time.

Sacchi was an innovator. His 4-4-2 was certainly helped by having the best players on the planet – Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Franco Baresi, Roberto Donandoni, Carlo Ancelotti – but his idea of football changed the way teams played in Italy. Milan played like the Dutch in the 1970s, high pressing, offside trap, high defensive line. He was strict and made the players work hard and had an obsessive attention to details. Not all his players loved him, but until he got results, all was OK. When he did not, there were problems. He was unlucky in the final against Brazil, but in the end playing with an injured Baggio was his decision.

He must be considered one of the best coaches ever and, to quote Rafael Benitez, “the coach who has revolutionised football in the past 50 years”.

Source

Wikipedia