Capello, the man behind league titles

CAIRO – 19 June 2017: Italian Fabio Capello was a good player and he became a great coach at the head of Chinese team Jiangsu Suning. Capello did not lose his habit of contributing to his team when he stopped playing and started coaching.

Capello played with three of Italy’s giant teams. He started with Roma in 1967, but three years later, when the team had not won the league, he went looking for another team.

And as they say in Italy, ‘If you want to win, book a ticket to Turin,’ that is exactly what he did.

Capello signed with Juventus in 1970 and he managed to win three league titles in 1972, 1973 and 1975. Knee injuries numbered his days as a player, but he challenged himself and went to AC Milan in 1976, where he played only 65 games in four years, winning only one title in Milano, for sure it was the Italian league in 1979.

Capello, who never found happiness outside football, returned to the sport in a position which needed a powerful mind rather than powerful knees: he became a coach.

Capello started with Milan, managing the youth for four years producing great players like Milan defense leaders in two decades Polo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta.

He also coached the team in six games in 1987 as a caretaker.

He then decided to take a step back from the stadium and started studying the game in college.

1991 was Capello’s real start: he replaced Arrigo Sacchi in Milan, where he had five great years. He won four league titles and the Champions League in 1994, making his time with Milan memorable. He then grabbed the attention of the Spanish giants Real Madrid.

Madrid had not won the league from 1990 to 1996 so they signed the expert. After only one year with Madrid Capello brought his team their long-awaited league title.

He returned for one year to Milan in a short and less successful year, and again left the team.

Capello wanted to repay, Roma who gave him his first chance with football, so signed with the team. It takes much time to achieve anything with them, but four years was enough for Capello to win the title in 2001. If anyone things Capello had an easy task, just ask a man called Francesco Totti.

All roads lead to Rome, but Capello only knows one road to leave Rome and it always delivered him to Turin.

Capello coached Juventus from 2004 to 2006, where he won two league titles, but the scandal in the Serie A “CalcioPoli“ stripped them off his trophies.

Real Madrid, who wanted the league title after two years of losing it to Barcelona, signed the old savior. Capello went to Madrid for one year and as the same happened: they ended the season with the league title.

Capello tried for a while working outside the Italian and Spanish clubs, but after seven years with national teams in England and Russia, he had no success.

Capello is now in China in a new experience with Jiangsu Suning, where he will find a way to win his beloved trophy.

Capello is a genius: three decades as a football coach has brought him 13 league titles and he will always be remembered as one of Europe’s best.