Eusebio Di Francesco

Eusebio Di Francesco ( born September 8, 1969 in Pescara ) is an Italian former football player and current coach. During his active career he was active for several Italian clubs and also completed twelve appearances for the Italian national football team. By the end of January 2014 he was coach at League U.S. Sassuolo. His son Federico is also a professional football player.

Playing career

Association

Eusebio Di Francesco began his career in 1985 at FC Empoli, with whom he in his first season promotion to the Serie A managed. In the following two seasons he was in the squad of the Tuscan club, but completed only one game in the top division and rose again with Empoli in the B series. His debut in the top division he gave on 31 January 1988 at the away game against Juventus, which was lost 4-0. After he ran aground in the 1988/89 season in 34 games for the club, was again not the league be secured and the midfielder joined after two years in the third-tier Serie C1 on. Di Francesco played 67 league games in Serie C1, scoring three goals for Empoli and received the first red card of his career.

In summer 1991, he joined the second division club AS Lucchese Libertas, which ran aground four years as a regular player in Serie B and became an integral part of the team. In 1995 he signed a contract with Piacenza Calcio. There, too, he always counted to the permanent staff, but increased after the 1996/97 season with the team from the top division from. The midfielder then left the club and joined the AS Roma. In his first season with the Brussels residents succeeded in placement on the fourth overall place and qualification for the UEFA Cup. In the following two years, Di Francesco qualified with the Brussels residents for the UEFA Cup.

In the 1998/99 season he scored eight league goals for AS Roma and turned so his best career value. However, his greatest success during his club career he achieved in the 2000 / 01, when he was able to win the Scudetto with AS Roma. A year later, he gave them to the designated league rivals Piacenza Calcio. The following stations AC Ancona and Perugia Calcio he trailed off his career.

National

The midfielder was called by coach Cesare Maldini in October 1997 for the first time in the squad of the Italian national team, however, made ​​his debut a year later under his successor Dino Zoff in the national team. Here, in the game against Wales on 5 September 1998 he gave his debut, the Italians won the game 2-0. Overall, he completed twelve appearances for Italy, his last deployment on 26 April 2000 against Portugal ended in a 2-0 win for Italy.

Coaching career

As the first stop of his coaching career Di Francesco took over the summer of 2008 the third division SS Virtus Lanciano. In January 2009, he was discharged at Lanciano and replaced by Dino Pagliari. In September 2009, he was named Pescara Calcio as the new technical director. After the dismissal of the head coach Antonello Cuccureddu on 12 January 2010 he finally took over as coach at the Biancoazzurri. Di Francesco's involvement in Lecce, however, was short-lived, he was released in the same year due to poor performance of his team and replaced by Serse Cosmi.

After half a year without a job Eusebio Di Francesco became the 2012/13 season new coach of Serie B club U.S. Sassuolo, with whom he reached the first promotion to Serie A to the end of the season. After the club had slipped in the following season the relegation zone, Di Francesco was the end of January 2014 dismissed and replaced by Alberto Malesani, but discontinued after only 35 days.