Carlo Mazzone

Carlo "Carletto" Mazzone (19 March 1937 – 19 August 2023) was an Italian professional association football player and manager, who played as a centre-back. Career Born in Rome, Mazzone was nicknamed Sor Carletto because of his Roman origins and the strong accent typical of the inhabitants of the Italian capital city. He played several seasons for Roma, as well as for SPAL and Ascoli. He spent nine seasons with Ascoli, retiring during the 1968–69 season to become the club's manager in Serie C, helping the team to win the title in 1972. Already popular with the Ascoli fans because of his history as a former player for the club, Mazzone gained even more popularity by leading the team for twelve years, up to their historic first ever Serie A appearance. Successively, Mazzone coached several Serie A and Serie B teams, such as Fiorentina, achieving his personal best result in Serie A, a third-place finish during the 1976–77 Serie A season, also winning the Anglo-Italian League Cup in 1975. From 1991 to 1993, he subsequently coached Catanzaro, Bologna, Lecce, Pescara, and Cagliari, leading the latter team to its first appearance in a European competition since the times of Gigi Riva. Mazzone always held his residence in Ascoli Piceno, home of Ascoli Calcio, the team in which he started his long managing career, despite having coached around the whole country for 35 years and more. After his successes at Cagliari, Mazzone fulfilled his dream, being called to manage his hometown club Roma for the 1993–94 Serie A season, where he coached a young Francesco Totti. He remained at the helm of Roma for three seasons, without being able to obtain any notable triumph. Mazzone returned to Cagliari for the 1996–97 Serie A season, and later also briefly coached Napoli for the 1997–98 Serie A season, before being sacked. He took charge of Bologna again for the 1998–99 Serie A season, winning the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup and reaching the semi-final of both the 1998–99 UEFA Cup and the 1998–99 Coppa Italia, also qualifying for the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup.