Gabriele Cioffi
Gabriele Cioffi (born 7 September 1975) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is the caretaker head coach at Serie A club Udinese, and was previously the head coach of club Crawley Town. Playing career. As a player, Cioffi was a defender. He started his career with Tuscan amateurs Sestese, which was followed by several other experience in the minor Italian leagues of Serie C1 and Serie C2. In January 2005 he joined Mantova, with whom he became a fan favourite, won a Serie C1 title and made his Serie  B debut during the 2005–06 season. After an impressive Serie B campaign with Mantova, he was subsequently signed by Torino, with whom he made his Serie A debut during the 2006–07 season. He left Torino after one season to join Ascoli, which he left in 2010 for AlbinoLeffe as a free agent. He retired in 2012 after two seasons with Carpi where he won the league as captain getting the promotion from Lega Pro 2 to Lega Pro 1. In his last season with the club he lost the final to Be promoted in Serie B. Managerial career. Early years . After his retirement, he stayed in Carpi as an assistant coach for the 2012–13 season. In July 2013 he was announced as new head coach of Lega Pro Seconda Divisione club Gavorrano; he was fired later in November and following his departure the squad had a poor run of results. It was widely understood that the club called him back with a few games remaining in the season, and relegation being a formality, although Gabriele refused to return. He subsequently relocated to Australia and worked for two years as youth coaches former for Eastern United FC, before moving back to  Italy in November 2015 to accept an offer as youth coach for the "Berretti" team of third division club Südtirol. He left the club in February 2016 to join Henk Ten Cate's coaching staff as assistant head coach at Al Jazira Club. After being an integral part of leading Al-Jazira to the President's Cup in 2016, and steering the club into returning to the Asian Champions League, Gabriele was headhunted in December 2016 and he joined the coaching staff of Gianfranco Zola at English Championship club Birmingham City. Following Zola's resignations on 17 April 2017, his  entire backroom staff, including Cioffi, left Birmingham too. In October 2017 he signed as assistant manager for Al Dhafra Football club who was fighting relegation. His first match on the touchline was against his previous team, Al-Jazira. The team, thanks to his work, was able to achieve safety from relegation, and to have a stable position in the table. Crawley Town. He had been widely accredited as being instrumental as assistant at his previous clubs, and having been earmarked and interviewed for several clubs after leaving Al-Dhafra, the opportunity finally arose for him to take on a role  as head coach. In September 2018 he was named as new head coach of EFL League Two club Crawley Town who was fighting the relegation area, succeeding Harry Kewell. Cioffi achieved the objective laid out for him comfortably, saving the club from relegation with several games of the season left, and was confirmed for a second season, during which Cioffi taking took on two historic cup runs, the first being the club reaching the 4th round of the League Cup for the first time, and beating Premier League opposition for the first time in the process, as well as reaching  the 2nd round of the FA Cup for the first time in nearly a decade. Several unfortunate injuries to key players, at the same time, led to a run where the club struggled to score and win despite creating chances. Gabriele was routinely supported by his players after the loss to League One team Fleetwood Town in the FA Cup, but despite this Cioffi and Crawley Town parted ways by mutual consent shortly thereafter. He was succeeded by John Yems. Udinese Calcio. In September 2020, he joined Serie A club Udinese as an assistant coach to manager Luca Gotti. Cioffi  settled in quickly at Udinese and when Luca Gotti was beset with COVID-19, Gabriele was in interim charge, including a famous away victory at Lazio. Although some media outlets strongly credited him with the plan for the victory, Gabriele humbly deferred to, and dedicated the victory to his boss. On 7 December 2021, following Luca Gotti's sacking at Udinese, Cioffi became the caretaker head coach for the team.