A short biography on Fabio Capello

England manager Fabio Capello, seen here on March 26, at preparations for the England-France match. England´s high-profile players have called for patience as Capello mulls over the England defeat.

      Fabio Capello was born in Pieris in Italy on 18 June 1946. He was a successful footballer in his day and has been one of the most successful club football managers of all time. From 7 January 2008 he took on his most important job, that as manager of England. The contract was been set to last four and a half years.

      He has a unique record in that he has won the domestic league with every team that he has managed.

      Controversially he was also harshly admonished by the Spanish and English public for not having played David Beckham for much of the 2006/7 Spanish Season when he was the manager of Real Madrid. He silenced his critics by claiming the Spanish Primera on the final day of the 2006/7 season when they pipped FC Barcelona. Despite that success he was fired at the end of the season by Real Madrid’s chairman Ramón Calderón.

      As a footballer he played in the midfield where he won Serie A titles with Juventus (1971/2), (1972/3) and (1974/5). He also won the title with AC Milan (1978/9). In between he also played for AS Roma. He finished his playing career with AC Milan. He won the Copa Italia in 1968/9 with AS Roma and with AC Milan in 1976/7.

      He represented his country Italy. Ironically it was his goal that was responsible for Italy’s first ever victory over England.

      As a manager he won the Serie A with AC Milan in 1991/2, 1992/3, 1993/4, 1995/6 and with AS Roma in the 2000/1 season. He also won the UEFA Champions League with AC Milan in 1994 when the beat FC Barcelona 4 – 0 in the final. Besides those major managerial achievements he won the European Super Cup with AC Milan when they beat Arsenal 2 – 0 and the Supercoppa Italiana with AC Milan in 1992, 1993, 1994 and in 2001 with AS Roma. To cap it all off he won the Spanish La Liga with Real Madrid in the 1996/7 and 2006/7 seasons.

      After Steve McClaren’s dismissal and the lack of interest shown by the early favourite to be his successor Jose Mourinho, Fabio Capello became the favourite for the job. Since his appointment, influential English Premier League managers such as Rafa Benitez, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger have come out in support of Capello whose contract is worth approximately £ 6 000 000 per year.

      He has also stated that this will be his last ever managerial job in football and he has also undertaken to improve his English.

      [David Cohen]