Christian Panucci participant in 1996 Summer Olympics
Christian Panucci (Italian pronunciation: [ˈkristjam paˈnuttʃi]; born 12 April 1973) is an Italian former footballer and manager. In his playing career he played as a defender. A versatile footballer, he began his career as a right-back, but was also capable of playing on the left; as he lost his pace in his later career, he was usually deployed as a centre back, due to his strength in the air.
Panucci began his playing career with Italian club Genoa in 1990, and moved to AC Milan in 1993, where he won several titles, including two Serie A titles and the UEFA Champions League in 1994, appearing in the final 4–0 victory over Barcelona as a left-back. Although he initially served as a back-up to the starting defensive line-up of Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta, and Mauro Tassotti, which is regarded as one of the greatest defences of all time, his precocious performances enabled him to break into the starting line-up, and earned him the Bravo Award in 1994. In 1996, he followed his former Milan coach Fabio Capello to Real Madrid, and was a starting right-back for the Spanish side, winning a La Liga title in 1997, and his second UEFA Champions League in 1998. He returned to Italy to join Inter Milan in 1999, but with less success, and was subsequently sent on loan to Premier League side Chelsea the following season, before joining French side Monaco. He transferred to Roma in 2001, where he was once again reunited with manager Capello, and remained at the club until 2009. His leadership and experience saw him play a key role for the club in his centre-back role, as he won two consecutive Coppa Italia titles in 2007 and 2008, as well as the Supercoppa Italiana. He retired in 2010, after a season with Parma.
After a successful international career at youth level, which saw him win consecutive under-21 European Championships, Panucci was a member of the Italian senior national team at the 1996 Olympics, 2002 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2004, and UEFA Euro 2008, playing 57 matches with Italy in total between 1994 and 2008, scoring 4 goals.
Following his retirement, in 2012 Panucci took up a position as an assistant manager to Fabio Capello with the Russia national football team. In 2015, he was appointed as head coach of Livorno, before joining Ternana in 2016. Amongst his greatest achievements in management so far is the accolade, in 2014, of the Italian udette 'del a sorta', Seria B's equivalent of the best newbie manager award. In July 2017, he was appointed as Albania national team coach.International career
Panucci had a successful career with the Italy national under-21 football team, winning consecutive under-21 European Championship titles in 1994 and 1996 under manager Cesare Maldini; in the final of the latter edition of the tournament against Spain, following a 1–1 draw, he took and missed Italy's first penalty in an eventual 4–2 shoot-out victory.After missing out on the Italy squad that reached the final of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Panucci made his senior Italy debut on 7 September 1994 against Slovenia in a UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying match. He missed out on the squad for the final tournament, however, following a dispute with Italian national coach Arrigo Sacchi. Despite missing out on the European Championship squad, he was named the captain of the Italian national team that took part at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, under his former youth coach Maldini. As he spent the following seasons abroad, however, he was once again excluded from Maldini's team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and he was also left out of Dino Zoff's squad for UEFA Euro 2000 due to his lack of playing and irregular performances with Inter; it was not until the 2002 World Cup, under manager Giovanni Trapattoni, that Panucci became a regular in the Italian team.In the 2002 World Cup, Panucci was widely blamed for failing to clear a pass that led to the equalising goal for co-hosts South Korea by Seol Ki-Hyun in the dying minutes of regulation time in the round of 16; Ahn Jung-hwan scored the golden goal of the match in extra time, which eliminated the Italian team from the tournament. In the first half of regulation time, Panucci had also conceded a controversial penalty, after referee Byron Moreno judged him to have pulled down Seol Ki-Hyeon in the box; Ahn's spot kick was saved by Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, however.After taking part in Italy's unsuccessful campaign at Euro 2004 in Portugal, assisting Antonio Cassano's goal in a 1–1 draw against Sweden in Italy's second group match of the tournament, Panucci did not play for Italy for over three years. Despite his performances and the lack of genuine quality Italian right-backs, he was ignored by manager Marcello Lippi, with whom he had fallen out in his days at Inter Milan, during the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, as Italy went on to win the final tournament in Germany. The 34-year-old, however, was given a second chance by coach Roberto Donadoni, who called him up for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Georgia, Scotland, and the Faroe Islands.Panucci expressed his delight at earning his 50th Italy cap in the stadium where he began his career for the Azzurri in the 2–0 win over Georgia in their Euro 2008 qualifying tie in Genoa at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
engaged in involved in took part in played a role in contributed to