Maurizio Manzini

Maurizio Manzini is neither a player nor a coach but he is an institution at Lazio.

Source Lazio Wiki

He was born in Rome on November 25, 1940. His early years of employment were in the field of air transport. He worked in Milan for various airlines including BEA and Itavia.

In 1971 merely as a fan he had his first contact with the Lazio team and directors in a Lugano hotel in Switzerland where the Biancocelesti were playing an Alps Cup game.

Manzini then moved back to Rome still working in the travel business. At work he realised the Lazio president Umberto Lenzini and his family were among his clients and he then organised one of Lazio's flights to an away game.

He became friends with Lazio secretary Fernando Vona and was soon collaborating regularly in organising the team's away trips.

Manzini was by now a familiar face at Tor di Quinto, Lazio's training headquarters and he also got on well with the head coach, Tommaso Maestrelli.

Manzini understood that at administrative level the club was badly organised and he became a general problem solver despite not being under contract.

In 1988 Giorgio Calleri, one of the brothers who owned Lazio alongside Gian Marco, proposed to Manzini to become Team Manager. Manzini however turned the offer down as he thought there was more security in the airline business. He did however continue helping out at Lazio with the logistics.

A year later the offer was renewed and this time Manzini accepted. From then on, he has accompanied Lazio around Italy and the world. He is a link between the players and the club, deals with the referees, transport and accommodation plans and generally any organisational matters.

He is discreet, professional, down to earth, charismatic and speaks five languages. He has become one with Lazio.

From 2015 he has delegated a lot of his tasks to younger collaborators but he is still involved with Lazio after more than fifty years. He is an integral and important part of Lazio history.

Born into a family of Roma fans he himself became a Lazio supporter and then managed to integrate his professional career with his football passion. On hundreds of clips of Lazio goals throughout all these years he can be seen celebrating on the bench with Maestrelli, Vinicio, Lovati, Fascetti, Materazzi, Zoff, Zeman, Eriksson, Rossi, Reja, Petkovic and Pioli to name a few. Manzini has seen a lot at Lazio.

Sources

Lazio Wiki