Zdeněk Zeman

Zdeněk Zeman (born 12 May 1947) is a Czech-Italian football manager.

Known for his exciting, offensive footballing tactics and use of the 4–3–3 formation, Zeman has managed numerous teams over the years, mostly in Italian football.

He has won the Serie B title twice, with Foggia and with Pescara.

Zeman's football coaching career started in Sicily, where he resided since the late 1960s.

His first coaching experiences were for amateur football teams from the outskirts of Palermo (Cinisi, Bacigalupo, Carini, Misilmeri, Esacalza).

In 1974, thanks to his uncle Čestmír Vycpálek's aid, he had his first notable experience as part of the Palermo Calcio youth coaching staff, which ended in 1983.

In 1975, he graduated with honours at the ISEF of Palermo (a sports school) with a dissertation in sports medicine.

In 1979, he finally obtained the patentino (a license for coaching football at the professional level) at Coverciano's school for football coaches.

His first opportunity as a professional head coach came from Licata, a small-medium city in the province of Agrigento, where he won Serie C2 with a team mainly composed of youngsters.

In 1986, he then left Licata to join Foggia of Serie C1, but he was sacked before the end of the championship.

In 1987, he became coach for Parma of Serie B but was fired after seven matches.

In 1988, he returned to Sicily as coach of Messina, classified in 8th place for the end of the season, also thanks to the goals of Salvatore Schillaci.

In 1989, the Foggia chairman Pasquale Casillo, repented of having fired him a few years before, signed on Zeman again.

It was to be the beginning of the miracle Foggia, also known as Zemanlandia (after Zeman himself), a team of, in those days, unknown players; amongst them, Giuseppe Signori and Francesco Baiano who regularly punched above their weight in the league.

In two years the team got promoted to top-level Serie A.

The first appearances of Foggia in Serie A are still quite unimaginable, with a team considered extremely weak verging on the UEFA Cup qualification for three consecutive years.

This was achieved by playing an impressive, attacking style of play, with the 4–3–3 module a clear trademark of Zdeněk Zeman's football views.

During those years at Foggia, players like Roberto Rambaudi, Luigi Di Biagio, Igor Shalimov, José Antonio Chamot, Dan Petrescu and Igor Kolyvanov came through.

It is said that Zeman's tactics were inspired by his time playing not football but handball as a student.

In 1994, Zeman left Foggia for the greater challenge of Lazio, bringing the Biancocelesti to 2nd and 3rd place before being fired in January 1997.

He is credited with launching the career of Alessandro Nesta whilst managing Lazio, giving the young defender many first-team opportunities.

In the next season, Zeman decided to stay in Rome, becoming the coach of A.S. Roma and the burgeoning talent of Francesco Totti.

As a consequence, Courts began a round of trials until Juventus sports doctor Riccardo Agricola was found guilty of administering excessive pharmaceuticals to players between 1994 and 1998 and condemned to a 1-year and ten months jail term in 2004, even though he was absolved the next year by a Court of Appeal.

After a good fourth place with some sparkling play, Zeman launched allegations about the abuse of pharmaceutical products in Italian football, citing former Juventus players Gianluca Vialli (at the time at Chelsea) and Alessandro Del Piero (of using creatine) in July 1998.

In the following 1998–1999 season Zeman reached a fifth-place finish with A.S. Roma but was replaced by Fabio Capello during the summer of 1999.

His next coaching adventures, for Fenerbahçe SK and S.S.C. Napoli, were not lucky; Zeman's coaching reputation quickly lost stock, leaving him unable to find a team willing to hire him.

After three Serie B years at Salernitana (2 years, a 6th place, and a dismissal), and Avellino (second-last placed, with a young Vitali Kutuzov on team), in 2004 Serie A team Lecce gambled on him.

Zeman, who had one of the youngest Serie A rosters at his disposal, answered with a good season, leading the team to a mid-table position and giving talented youngsters like Valeri Bojinov and Mirko Vučinić an opportunity.

At the end of the season, Zeman resigned.

After nine months without a team, Zeman was appointed on 5 March 2006 as the new coach of Brescia, taking in his first time a team in the half-season.

However, Brescia, who were in third place in Serie B when Zeman was hired, suffered a heavy fall in terms of results, and the team could not maintain a place in the promotion playoffs, with 8 points in 11 matches.

After the end of the season, Zeman resigned from Brescia, criticizing his players for not having accepted his tactics.

On 21 June 2006, Zeman returned to Lecce, signing a one-year contract with the giallorossi, who were relegated to Serie B in 2005–2006.

Because of poor results, he was fired on 24 December and replaced by Giuseppe Papadopulo.

On 17 June 2008, Red Star Belgrade unveiled Zeman as their new head coach.

However, after only five competitive games as Red Star's head coach, on 6 September 2008 Zeman was sacked because of catastrophic results in Serbian League and UEFA Cup.

During Zeman's management, Red Star hadn't managed to score in three domestic league matches, and the club found themselves at the bottom of the table for the first time in 24 years.

Red Star were also eliminated in the qualifying round of the UEFA Cup by APOEL F.C. from Cyprus.

On 20 July 2010, it was confirmed that Zeman would take over as the new head coach of his former club Foggia, rejoining chairman Pasquale Casillo and director of football Giuseppe Pavone as part of the trio who led the Satanelli into Serie A back in the 1990s.

He left the club at the end of May, after ending the regular season in sixth place, and failing to qualify for the promotion playoffs despite his Foggia team being the team with the highest goalscoring ratio among all Italian professional leagues.