Edoardo Reja (born 10 October 1945) is an Italian professional football manager and former Football player who was most recently the manager of Slovenian club ND Gorica.
After a career as a midfielder spent mostly with SPAL and Palermo, he began working as a manager. He won four promotions from Serie B, including as champions with Brescia Calcio (1997) and Vicenza Calcio (2000), as well as Cagliari Calcio (2004) and SSC Napoli (2007).
Reja managed Vicenza, Napoli, SS Lazio and Atalanta BC in Serie A.
Playing career
Reja began his career with the
SPAL youth squad, coached by
Paolo Mazza, playing in
Midfielder alongside lifelong friend
Fabio Capello, and other notable players such as Louis Pasetti and Adriano Zanier. Together, they helped the team win the 1963–64 Campionato Nazionale Primavera. In 1965, Reja joined Capello in
Serie A, in the SPAL first team, earning an appearance with the Italian U-23 squad. Reja played for two more teams, US Città di Palermo and Alessandria in a long career that lasted until 1975, playing a total of 124
Serie A matches.
Coaching career
Early career
Reja started his coaching career in 1979 serving as boss of
Serie D team Molinella. Next year he then coached Monselice of Serie C2. In 1989, he coached his first
Serie B team,
Pescara Calcio, of which he was previously the youth squad boss. He successively gained good successes in the same league with Cosenza,
US Lecce and
Brescia Calcio, where he won the championship. In fact, he launched the career of notable footballer
Andrea Pirlo at Brescia, where Pirlo was a regular member of the squad. However, Reja opted to give up the opportunity to coach Brescia in
Serie A, preferring to accept an offer from
Torino FC, another Serie B team, where he then missed promotion defeated in the promotion playoffs to
Perugia Calcio after a penalty shootout.
Serie A debut at Vicenza, Genoa, Catania and Cagliari
During the 1998–1999 season, he was appointed coach of
Serie A club
Vicenza Calcio, thus making his debut in a top division team, but was unable to save the team from relegation. Next year he remained at Vicenza and led his team back to Serie A, but promptly relegated one more time in 2001. In 2001–2002, he replaced Franco Scoglio at the helm of
Genoa CFC (Serie B), but to be fired himself only three months later. On 2002–2003, he was appointed in the mid-season by
Calcio Catania boss
Luciano Gaucci to replace
John Toshack. In November 2003, he replaced Gian Piero Ventura at
Cagliari Calcio and guided the
rossoblu to second place in the
Serie B and promotion to
Serie A, but was not confirmed.
Napoli
In January 2005, Reja was appointed as the manager of
SSC Napoli, again after Ventura's dismissal.
He led Napoli to win Serie C1, obtaining promotion to Serie B in 2006, then a second consecutive promotion to
Serie A in 2007 – returning the
Naples team to the top flight for the first time since 2001.
In his first Serie A campaign with Napoli, Reja guided them to an Intertoto Cup qualification spot, and was confirmed at the helm of Napoli in the 2008–09 Serie A season. He managed to lead the Partenopei to the second qualification round of the UEFA Cup, where they were defeated by S.L. Benfica. Napoli rose up to first place in the Serie A table in the first half of the season. After two points in nine games caused the team to fall into the bottom half, Reja was sacked on 10 March 2009, following a 0–2 home loss to SS Lazio, and replaced by former Italian team boss Roberto Donadoni.
Lazio
After a short successful spell as head coach of Croatian side Hajduk Split from August 2009 to February 2010, Reja opted to quit his job in Split in order to become the new manager of SS Lazio.
He was unveiled as the new Lazio head coach the following day, replacing Davide Ballardini.
He turned the fortunes of a club in dismay, guiding it out of the relegation zone and into a mid-table finish in the season.
The 2010–11 season for Lazio started in an astonishing way, with the team surprisingly heading Serie A with a four-point advantage to runners-up Inter after nine games, thanks to Reja's abilities in relaunching players such as Mauro Zárate, Cristian Ledesma and Stefano Mauri, as well as introducing new key signings such as Brazilian international Hernanes. On 17 May 2012 he resigned from the job, despite the president's pleas for him to stay on.
After the sacking of Vladimir Petković, Reja returned to Lazio for a second spell on 4 January 2014, completing the season in ninth place. On 12 June 2014, he resigned from his role, with Stefano Pioli appointed as his replacement the same day.
Atalanta
Reja was appointed trainer of
Atalanta BC on 4 March 2015 with the team three points above the relegation zone after the dismissal of Stefano Colantuono.
His time at the club ended in May 2016, having saved them twice from relegation.
Albania
On 17 April 2019, Albania signed Reja to a seven-month contract after fellow Italian Christian Panucci was dismissed the previous month.
Gorica
On 2 March 2023, just a few months after the end of his contract with the Albania national team, Reja returned into management as the new head coach of Slovenian PrvaLiga bottom-placed club
ND Gorica.
On 17 April 2023, after only seven games in charge, his contract with Gorica was mutually terminated.
Personal life
Reja was born in the village of Lucinico (), now a suburb of
Gorizia (), near the border between Italy and Slovenia. His father was a Slovenian from the village of Vipolže in Brda, Slovenia, while his mother was
.
He is fluent in Italian, Slovenian, and
Friulan language.
However, his levels of fluency vary: while he is able to speak the standard form of Italian, he only speaks a regional variety of Slovenian, strongly influenced by his native
Brda dialect.
He is close friends with Fabio Capello.[http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/lazio-need-rejas-resolve. The National. 14 Feb. 2010. Retrieved on 28 July. 2012.] Reja has been married to his wife Livia since 1969; he met his wife while rooming with Capello in Ferrara, at the time playing for SPAL.[Capello: Portrait of A Winner. Gabrielle Marcotti]
Managerial statistics
| + Managerial record by team and tenure |
|
|
| Pordenone CSSD | | 1 July 1981 | 23 November 1981
|
| Monselice | | 1 July 1982 | 30 June 1983
|
| Pro Gorizia | | 7 July 1983 | 30 June 1984
|
| Treviso | | 30 June 1984 | 25 February 1985
|
| Treviso | | 15 April 1985 | 12 June 1985
|
| AC Mestre | | 23 November 1985 | 3 June 1986
|
| Varese Calcio | | 7 March 1987 | 9 June 1987
|
| Pescara Calcio | | 25 September 1989 | 4 June 1990
|
| Cosenza | | 1 November 1990 | 16 June 1992
|
| Verona | | 16 June 1992 | 14 June 1993
|
| Bologna | | 29 November 1993 | 18 June 1994
|
| US Lecce | | 16 November 1994 | 30 January 1995
|
| Brescia Calcio | | 26 February 1996 | 30 June 1997
|
| Torino FC | | 7 October 1997 | 30 June 1998
|
| Vicenza Calcio | | 3 February 1999 | 22 June 2001
|
| Genoa CFC | | 29 December 2001 | 4 March 2002
|
| Calcio Catania | | 29 January 2003 | 6 April 2003
|
| Cagliari Calcio | | 24 November 2003 | 30 June 2004
|
| SSC Napoli | | 16 January 2005 | 10 March 2009
|
| Hajduk Split | | 18 August 2009 | 9 February 2010
|
| SS Lazio | | 10 February 2010 | 2 June 2012
|
| SS Lazio | | 4 January 2014 | 12 June 2014
|
| Atalanta BC | | 4 March 2015 | 14 June 2016
|
| Albania | | 17 April 2019 | 31 December 2022
|
| ND Gorica | | 2 March 2023 | 17 April 2023
|
|
Honours
Player
SPAL
-
Campionato Nazionale Primavera: 1964–65
Alessandria Calcio 1912
Manager
Brescia
Vicenza
Napoli
