Domenico Tedesco

Domenico Tedesco :

(Italian pronunciation: [doˈmeːniko teˈdesko]; born 12 September 1985) is an Italian-German football manager who is currently the head coach of the Belgium national team.

In 2017, he took over as manager of Schalke 04 and guided them to a second place finish in the Bundesliga in his debut season. He was sacked in March 2019 and subsequently took charge of Spartak Moscow in the Russian league in October 2019. He left Spartak in June 2021 before being appointed at RB Leipzig in December, leading them to win the 2022 DFB-Pokal. He was sacked by Leipzig in September 2022. In February 2023, he was appointed as the coach of Belgium on a contract through to UEFA Euro 2024.

Career

Personal life;

(Born in Ross-ano) Italy, Tedesco's parents emigrated to Esslingen, Germany, when he was two years old. Coincidentally, his last name, Tedesco, means "German" in Italian language. After completing his vocational training as a wholesale merchant, he obtained a bachelor's degree in business engineering and a master's in innovation management. He holds dual German-Italian citizenship.

Beginnings in youth teams

When Tedesco was two years old, his family emigrated from the Italian province of Cosenza to Germany and settled in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg. Tedesco and his younger brother later acquired German citizenship. As a player, he was active for ASV Aichwald in the Kreisliga-A.

On 1 July 2008, Tedesco began to work in the youth department of VfB Stuttgart as an assistant coach under Thomas Schneider. From 2013 onwards he was assistant coach of the under-17 team before being promoted to head coach during the course of the season. At the end of the 2014–15 season, he left Stuttgart to become youth manager for 1899 Hoffenheim. He was promoted to under-19 coach ahead of the 2016–17 season. He graduated from the Hennes-Weisweiler -Akademie, Germany's football coaching academy, as the top student of the class of 2016.

Schalke

Starting with the 2017–18 season, Tedesco took over the managerial spot for Bundesliga side Schalke 04.[8] He inked a two-year deal with the Royal Blues on 9 June 2017.[9]

On 25 November 2017, Tedesco's side went 4–0 down at half time against rivals Borussia Dortmund. Schalke eventually drew 4–4 in a historic Revierderby, earning him Bundesliga's Man of Matchday 13, the first manager to ever win the award.

He guided Schalke to a second-place finish in the Bundesliga in his first season in charge of the club.

After a 0–7 defeat against Manchester City in the Champions League round of 16 and seven winless games in a row, Tedesco was sacked on 14 March 2019.

Spartak Moscow

On 14 October 2019, the Russian club Spartak Moscow appointed Tedesco as their new head coach. He signed a contract that ran until June 2021.

Throughout his tenure he generally kept Spartak at the top of the league table, gaining popularity amongst the fans, not only for his performance as manager, but also because of his emotional, charismatic and outgoing character.[11]

On 16 December 2020, he announced that he will not extend his contract with Spartak after June 2021, the originally agreed date, due the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the time he is able to spend with his family.[12]

In a highly emotional final game, in which Spartak needed to either draw or win against FC Akhmat Grozny to remain in second place and reach the Champions League third qualifying round, the final score was 2–2. This was despite Tedesco's team being 2–0 down at half-time.

RB Leipzig

On 9 December 2021, Tedesco took over the head coach position at RB Leipzig. In the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, RB Leipzig reached the semi-finals, in which they were eliminated by Rangers 3–2 on aggregate .On 21 May 2022, he led RB Leipzig to win the DFB-Pokal Final 4–2 on penalties against SC Freiburg.[15]

Despite the successful first season, the 2022–23 season started with several disappointing results, and he was fired on 7 September 2022 after a 4–1 home Champions League loss to Shakhtar Donetsk.

THE 32-YEAR-OLD ITALIAN BUILDING A NEW SCHALKE

Having only kicked the ball around at the lowest rung of German football, the Kreisliga, Tedesco could not take the route of Zinedine Zidane, who turned on-the-pitch superstardom into a managerial position.

Tedesco is what you might call a managerial ‘reach’. At just 32, he didn’t have the beefy resumé and proven success, and, based on modern footballing tendencies, should not have been managing at the highest level.

Tedesco didn’t take his time. He jumped right in, selling off 15-year club icon Benedikt Höwedes and signing no one to take his place. Tedesco noted that he wanted to keep Höwedes, but that he could not guarantee the captain playing time following his injury. The German international would have to earn his place just like everyone else, and that wasn’t enough for the longest-tenured Schalke man.

The Italian let what resources he already had fill in the blanks. He turned 35-year old Brazilian defender Naldo, a player who was supposed to be well past his prime when he came over from Wolfsburg in 2016, into the defensive talisman and partnered him with a 21-year-old prospect in Thilo Kehrer and a defensive midfielder in Benjamin Stambouli.

It’s not exactly a conventional defence but it has proven to be surprisingly effective. Naldo seems to have reached peak form again, Kehrer leads the entirety of Germany in tackles won, and Stambouli is right behind him. If the individual talent isn’t what’s holding it all together, then something else has to be that adhesive. That something is Tedesco.