Massimiliano Allegri

Massimiliano Allegri ( born 11 August 1967), also known as Max Allegri, is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Juventus.

During his playing career, Allegri played in the Serie A as a midfielder with Pisa, Pescara, Cagliari, Perugia and Napoli.

After spending the earlier part of his career in the lower leagues, including his hometown club Livorno, Allegri joined Pescara in 1991.

A talented and creative player, he established himself in midfield as Giovanni Galeone's side won promotion to Serie A in 1992.

Allegri was an outstanding performer for Pescara in Serie A. Despite the side's relegation in last place, there was no shortage of goals and Allegri scored an impressive 12 goals from midfield.

He moved on to Cagliari and then Perugia and Napoli before returning to Pescara.

Alongside five other Italian footballers, Allegri received a one-year ban for match-fixing following a Coppa Italia tie in 2000.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) also handed one-year suspensions to Fabio Gallo, Sebastiano Siviglia, and Luciano Zauri of Serie A side Atalanta; and Alfredo Aglietti of Serie B's Pistoiese.

In 2002, he won the Serie D title with Aglianese, with whom he retired as a player.

During his time in Livorno, due to his lean body and quickness, he was referred to as “Acciughina” (Little Anchovy), a nickname Italian press still uses to address him.

After beginning his managerial career in 2003 with several smaller Italian sides, Allegri helped Sassuolo gain promotion to the Serie B for the first time in their history, winning the Serie C1 championship and Super Cup in the same year.

Brief spells at Pistoiese and Aglianese followed before his retirement from active football in 2003.

Allegri started his managerial career in 2004, serving as the manager of Serie C2 team Aglianese, the club where he spent his two final years as a player.

In his first season in charge, Allegri led Milan to their first championship title since 2004, beating title incumbents and cross-city rivals Inter Milan in both league fixtures; at the time, only Roberto Mancini had achieved that feat at a younger age.

Allegri's Milan side, however, failed to make it past the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, losing to Palermo 4–3 on aggregate.

The team also competed in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League, where they were eliminated by Tottenham Hotspur.

Success continued in his second season at the club.

Following an impressive season with them, Allegri was called to head Grosseto, then in Serie C1, but his experience with the biancorossi proved not to be as successful as with Aglianese and he was ultimately sacked shortly after the beginning of the 2006–07 Serie C1 season.

Shortly after being sacked by Grosseto, Allegri agreed to rejoin his mentor Giovanni Galeone at Udinese, becoming part of his coaching staff.

In August 2007, Allegri became head coach of ambitious Serie C1 team Sassuolo, who Allegri managed to lead quickly into the top league spots.

From 2008 to 2010, he coached Cagliari in Serie A, leading them to their best Serie A finish in almost 15 years.

However, this practice proved to be forbidden by the Italian football laws because he was still contracted with the Tuscan club, which caused Allegri to be disqualified for three months in early 2008.

On 27 April 2008, Sassuolo mathematically ensured the 2007–08 Serie C1/A league title, thus winning a historical first promotion to Serie B for the neroverdi.

On 29 May 2008, Allegri was announced as new head coach of Cagliari in the Serie A, replacing Davide Ballardini.

Despite a disappointing start, with five losses in the first five league matches, Allegri was confirmed by club chairman Massimo Cellino and later went on to bring his team up to a mid-table placement in December.

He completed the 2008–09 season in an impressive ninth place, their best result in Serie A in almost fifteen years, which was hailed as a huge result in light of the limited resources, the lack of top-class players, and the high quality of Cagliari's attacking football style, which led the Sardinians not far from UEFA Europa League qualification.

Such results led him to be awarded the Panchina d'Oro (Golden bench), a prize awarded to the best Serie A football manager according to other managers' votes, ahead of Serie A winning coach José Mourinho.

Individually, Allegri won the Panchina d'Oro (Golden Bench) four times (2009, 2015, 2017 and 2018) and was four times Serie A Coach of the Year (2011, 2015, 2016 and 2018), as well as being awarded the Enzo Bearzot Award (2015) and inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame (2018).

He is also the only coach in Italian football history to have won five Scudetti and four Coppa Italia titles consecutively, and the only one in Europe's top five leagues to have won a domestic double for four consecutive seasons.

In the 2009–10 season, he managed to confirm Cagliari's high footballing levels despite the loss of regular striker Robert Acquafresca, leading an impressive number of three players from his side—namely Davide Biondini, Federico Marchetti, and Andrea Cossu—to receive Italy national team call-ups during his reign at the club.

His performances as head coach of Cagliari earned him a move to AC Milan in 2010, where he remained until January 2014; he won a Scudetto in 2010–11, Milan's first since 2004, and a Supercoppa Italiana title in 2011.

On 13 April 2010, Cagliari surprisingly removed Allegri from his managerial duties despite a solid 12th place with 40 points, and youth coach Giorgio Melis—with Gianluca Festa as his assistant—was appointed as his replacement.

Allegri was released from his contract by Cagliari on 17 June 2010, under request of Serie A giants AC Milan, who were interested in appointing him as their new manager.

On 25 June, Allegri was officially appointed as the new manager of Milan.

On 9 December, following a 1–0 home win to Palermo, Cagliari announced they had agreed a two-year contract extension with Allegri, with a new contract that was set to expire on 1 June 2011.

The contract was then revealed to have been signed in October, in the midst of the rossoblu's early crisis.

He led Milan to their sixth Supercoppa Italiana title on 6 August 2011, by coming from behind in a 2–1 win over city rivals Inter in a game played at the Beijing National Stadium.

That was as far as his success went for that season, however.

Between 2014 and 2019, Allegri was in charge of Juventus, with whom he won eleven trophies: five consecutive league titles (from 2015 to 2019), four Coppa Italia titles in a row (from 2015 to 2018) and two Supercoppa Italiana titles (2015 and 2018); he also reached two UEFA Champions League finals (2015 and 2017).

He returned to Juventus in 2021, following two years away from management.