Nereo Rocco

Nereo Rocco was born in Trieste, on May 20, 1912. His father was Austrian with Roch as surname but it was changed to Rocco by the fascist regime in 1925, while his mother was from Trieste. He came from a wealthy background as his family had a meat business which supplied the navy.

Source Wikipedia

His first clubs as a boy were Ginnastica Trieste (1925-26), Audace Triestina (1926-27) and Triestina whom he joined in 1927.

After a year in the youth team, in 1928 he moved up to the first team squad where he would stay for 9 seasons, 8 in Serie A. He played 235 league games with 62 goals. The Alabardati finished 9th in Divisione Nazionale (but promoted to A for geo-political reasons), 15th, 14th, 13th, 8th, 11th, 10th, 6th and 12th. His managers included; Rudolf Soutschek (for two seasons), István Tóth (in two spells), Béla Révész, Mario Grassi, Károly Csapkay, Lajos Kovács and Jenő Konrad.

In 1937 he signed for Napoli and stayed three seasons. He played 52 league games with 7 goals and the Partenopei finished 10th, 5th and 13th in A. In 1938-39 he had his first managerial experience as he was part of a technical commission in charge from fixture 16-30. His actual managers were: Angelo Mattea, Eugen Payer and Adolfo Baloncieri.

In 1940 he moved north again and joined Padova in Serie B. In two years he played 47 league games with 14 goals. The Patavini finished 5th and 4th, under Stanislao Klein and József Báná.

During World War II he turned out for 94th Reparto Distrettuale ad San Giusto while after the conflict he continued locally with Cacciatore Trieste and Libertas Trieste where he was also the coach.

At 35 he retired.

He won one Italian cap in a World Cup 4-0 winning qualifier against Greece in 1934.

On retiring he continued coaching and in 1947 joined his hometown club Triestina in Serie A. He had three good years especially the first with a 2nd place finish (behind Grande Torino) followed by two 8th places.

In 1950 he moved to Treviso in Serie B. In Veneto he obtained 15th, 6th and 9th place finishes.

In 1953-54 he returned to Triestina in Serie A and finished 12th.

From 1954 to 1961 he was back at Padova. The Euganei won promotion to Serie A in his first year and then 8th, 11th, 3rd, 8th 5th and 6th in the top flight. During his last season at Padova he also had a spell in charge of the 1960 Italy Olympic team (with technical director Giuseppe Viani and co-coach Paolo Todeschini) with a 4th place.

In 1961 he was rewarded with a move to A.C. Milan. He stayed two seasons. In his first season the Rosoneri won the Scudetto and in the second their first ever European Cup (Benfica 2-1 at Wembley). His squads included Milan greats such as; Giorgio Ghezzi, Mario Trebbi, Francesco Zagatti, Mario David, Cesare Maldini and José Altafini

In 1963 Rocco joined Torino and stayed four seasons. The Granata finished 7th, 3rd, 10th and 7th.

In 1967 he returned to Milan and stayed another seven seasons (1972-73 and Dec '73-Feb '74 as T.D with Maldini as coach). The Diavolo won the Scudetto in 1968, the European Cup in 1969 (Ajax 4-1), the Intercontinental Cup in 1970 (Estudiantes 3-0) and the Coppa Italia twice in 1972 and 1973 (Napoli 2-0 and Juventus on pens) and the Cup Winners Cup in 1973 (Leeds United 1-0). In this period he coached Milan greats such as: Fabio Cudicini, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, Giovanni Trapattoni, Aldo Maldera, Angelo Anquilletti, Giovanni Lodetti, Giorgio Biasiolo, Romeo Benetti, Alberto Bigon, Gianni Rivera, Kurt Hamrin, Pierino Prati and Angelo Sormani to name a few. In February 1974 he left Milan due to disagreements with the directors.

In 1974-75 Rocco coached Fiorentina for a season. La Viola finished 8th in A but won the Coppa Italia (Milan 3-2).

In October of the 1975-76 season he went back to Milan as technical director with Paolo Barison as manager. The Rossoneri finished 3rd. The squad included Milan greats such as Alberto Albertosi, Aldo Bet, Fulvio Collovati and Egidio Calloni.

In February 1977 he was called back to Milan as manager/ technical director. The Rossoneri finished 10th but won another trophy, the Coppa Italia (Inter 2-0). The squad included future top coach Fabio Capello.

He died on February 20, 1979, in his Trieste.

As a player Rocco was an attacking midfielder. He played 287 games in Serie A with 69 goals.

As a manager many named him as the first to use the "Catenaccio" style of play in Italy (very defensive with man to man marking and a libero). He was a strong and old school character, known as "El Paròn (Il Padrone  - The Boss). Whatever his secret he was highly successful;  he won the Scudetto twice, the European Cup twice, the Coppa Italia three times, the Cup Winners Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.

He was a hard character but also known for his irony and famous one liners. Once interviewed as Padova manager before a game against fancied Juventus, to the statement "may the best team win" he answered in dialect with the ironic "Ciò, sperèmo de no!" (let's hope not).

He is a legend for many; the Trieste stadium bears his name since 1992 as does a Stadium in Marcon (Venice), Milan's training ground Milanello has his statue at the entrance and the street near Padova's ground is Via Nereo Rocco.

He is still considered one of Italy's best ever managers.

Sources

Wikipedia