After winning the Premier League one season and then the FA Cup the next, Antonio Conte’s time in charge of Chelsea came to an end when the club finished fourth and missed out on Champions League football for the 2018-2019 season. Perhaps Roman Abramovich had enjoyed working with an Italian for the first time since Roberto Di Matteo’s time at Stamford Bridge, leading him to give the manager’s job to Maurizio Sarri. It was his first managerial role outside of Italy, but he used his knowledge of Europe to lead the club to a victory in the Europa League before heading back to his homeland to manager Juventus.
Maurizio Sarri’s Honours as Chelsea Manager
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | – | – | Europa League |
Sari’s Early Years
Maurizio Sarri was born on the 10th of January 1959 in the Italian city of Naples. His father, Amerigo, was a former professional cyclist and worked at an Italian steel company as a crane operator in the Naples district Bagnoli. Raised in Castro, the province of Bergamo, before moving to the municipality of Castelfranco Piandiscò in the province of Arezzo, Maurizio divided his time between playing amateur football and working for the Tuscan bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. That work saw him travel to the likes of London, Luxembourg and Zürich. As a football, he was a centre-back but only played at an amateur level.
Although he had trials at both Torino and Fiorentina, he failed both of them and instead played for his local team in Figline. When he was 19, he was closed to signing for Montevarchi, but when Figline asked for 50 million lire in way of compensation the deal fell apart. He refused to sign for Pontedera, with injuries eventually seeing him retire as a player with Figline. After years working at the bank in the morning and then playing games and training in the afternoon and evening, he made the transition into coaching by following the same routine he had done for years. It was only when he was offered a job with Tegoleto that he quit his job as a banker.
Moving Into Management
When discussing Maurizio Sarri, it is important to acknowledge that he did not accept an easy route into coaching. His first managerial role came with Stia, who were in the Seconda Categoria when he took on the role in 1990. A year later he’d moved to Faellese, taking the club up to the Promozione. Working for both Cavriglia and Antella, he got them into the Eccellenza. From there he went to Valdema and Tegoleto, eventually signing on as the manager for Sansovino in the Eccellenza in 2000, helping them get promotion to the Serie D in his first season. That earned the attention of Serie C2 side Sangiovannese, who signed him in 2003.
His work with Sangiovannese saw them promoted to Serie C1, but he resigned in 2005 and took over at Serie B side Pescara. He helped them to avoid relegation and then took on the manager’s role at Arezzo, who had just sacked a certain Antonio Conte. Within a few months he was sacked and Conte re-appointed. From there he enjoyed brief stints at Avellino, Hellas Verona and Perugia before arriving at Grosseto in 2010. He moved to Alessandria and then Serrento, very much carrying out the role of jobbing manager. Arguably his first big role came when Empoli hired him, getting them into Serie A in his second season.
Arriving at Chelsea
On the 11th of June 2015, Sarri left Empoli in order to take over from Rafael Benítez, a previous Chelsea manager, at Napoli. He finished second in his first season behind Juventus and then third the season after, being named the league’s Coach of the Year. They finished the first half of the 2015-2016 campaign in first, gaining the title of ‘Campioni d’Inverno’, or ‘Winter Champions’, for the first time in 26 years. They eventually finished third, being the ‘Campioni d’Inverno’ again the following season before finishing second. In the May of 2018 he was replaced by another former Chelsea manager in the form of Carlo Ancelotti.
Perhaps it was a combination of the fact that he had repeatedly seen his path cross with other former Chelsea managers and his success at Napoli that saw Sarri named the head coach of Chelsea on the 14th of July 2018. Whatever the logic, he replaced Antonio Conte, who had been sacked the day before, and saw his first competitive match be the Community Shield game against Manchester City. Chelsea lost 2-0, but a week later Sarri registered his first win as the manager of the Blues when they won 3-0 away against Huddersfield Town. He became the first manager to remain unbeaten in his first 12 fixtures in the Premier League.
A weird coincidence occurred on the 24th of November 2018 when Chelsea’s unbeaten run under Sarri was brought to an end by the same team that had ended a similar run for Antonio Conte: Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea lost that game 3-1, but they had bigger fish to fry in the form of the League Cup final against holders Manchester City. One of football’s more bizarre incidents happened as the match and extra-time ended 0-0, with Sarri wanting to substitute the goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for Willy Caballero, with the latter winning the competition for City with his saves in 2016, only for Arrizabalaga to refuse to leave the field.
Sarri nearly stormed out of the stadium, staying to watch his team lose the shoot-out 3-4 before he had to be held back from confronting the goalkeeper by Antonio Rüdiger. After the game the two involved said that it had been a misunderstanding. The good news for Sarri was that he would have another opportunity to win a trophy, with Chelsea making it to the final of the Europa League where they faced fellow London club Arsenal in Baku. Chelsea had gone undefeated throughout their Europa League campaign, which continued in the final where they beat the Gunners 4-1 thanks to a brace from Eden Hazard and goals from Oliver Giroud and Pedro.
Life After Chelsea
At the end of the Sarri’s first season outside of Italy, with Chelsea having won the Europa League, made it to the final of the League Cup and finished third behind Manchester City and Liverpool in the Premier League, the club confirmed that the Italian would be returning to his homeland in order to take over as the manager of Juventus and be closer to his elderly parents. He signed a three-year contract on the 16th of June 2019, but in the August of that year he was treated for pneumonia and missed the first two games of the season. He won Serie A at the first time of asking, becoming the oldest manager to win the title.
Having been knocked out of the Champions League at the round of 16 stage, Sarri was sacked by Juventus. After a brief sabbatical he took on the role as Lazio’s manager, finishing fifth in the league in his first season. The club was knocked out of the Europa League by Porto, but in the June of 2022 his contract was extended until 2025. In his second season he helped the Biancocelesti finish in second in Serie A, but his performances in cup competitions was poor. As a result, after being eliminated from the Europa League by AZ, Mauricio Sarri resigned as head coach on the 12th of March 2024.