Sarri's amazing story: from eighth Italian division to the Europa League title with Chelsea

Nikita Fesyukov
30 mag 2019

Chelsea defeated Arsenal 4-1 yesterday in the Europa League final and it was also Maurizio Sarri's first career trophy, or was it? The former Napoli man actually has another honour his curriculum, winning the Coppa Italia Serie D in the 2002-03 season. However, his story started even lower in the Italian football system.

Maurizio #Sarri torna ad alzare una coppa. La prima era stata nel 2003 (coppa Italia di serie D) con la Sansovino. A quella avevano partecipato 162 squadre italiane, a questa 213 europee!#Sarri #Chelsea #EuropaLeague pic.twitter.com/BZTWLVR2B2
— Fabrizio Ferrari (@FabrizioFERRARl) May 29, 2019

Sarri used to work at a bank and coaching was just a part-time and amateur thing for him. He started off his career for U.S.D Stia 1925 in 1990, in the eighth division of Italian football.

Eventually, he moved from one club to another, later settling in Sansovino, helping them to earn promotion to Serie D. Later on, he signed with Sangiovannese, which he helped to lead to Serie C1 in his first season. At this point, Sarri was already dedicated to this profession full-time, after having quit his job as a banker.

Between 2005 and 2012, Sarri peddled between Serie B and Serie C until settling in at Empoli in June 2015. In his first season, he helped the team achieve 4th place in the second division of Italian football, while in the season after that, he helped the club reach direct promotion to Serie A after six years, also keeping the team in the top league in the following season.

As a result, he was hired by Napoli, where he implemented his attractive style of football and became famous to the world of football as one of the professors of the modern game. He came incredibly close to winning the Serie A title in his last season with the Partenopei, finishing just four points behind champions Juventus.

After that season, Sarri replaced Antonio Conte at the Stamford Bridge. Despite many doubts and ups and downs throughout the season, he led his team to a third-place finish in the Premier League, guaranteeing Champions League football. He played a League Cup final, only losing in the penalty shootout against Manchester City and yesterday he won his first major title, defeating Arsenal in the Europa League to complete a remarkable story of a remarkable coach.