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Luigi Del Neri
Personal information
Full name	Luigi Del Neri
Date of birth	August 23, 1950 (age 56)
Place of birth	Aquileia, Italy
Nickname	Gigi
Playing position	Manager
Club information
Current club	Chievo Verona
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1967-1968 1968-1972 1972-1974 1974-1975 1975-1978 1978-1980 1980-1981 1981-1982 1982-1983 1983-1984 1984-1985	Aquileia Spal Foggia Novara Foggia Udinese Sampdoria Vicenza Siena Pro Gorizia Opitergina
Teams managed
1985-1986 1986-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1992 1992-1994 1994-1996 1996-1998 1998 1998-1999 2000-2004 2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-	Opitergina Pro Gorizia Partinicaudace Teramo Ravenna Novara Nocerina Ternana Empoli Ternana Chievo Verona FC Porto AS Roma Palermo Chievo Verona
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Luigi Del Neri (born August 23, 1950 in Aquileia, Udine) is an Italian football manager and former player.

Del Neri made his professional debut as player at the age of 16 for Spal, Ferrara's football team, for which it had worked as storer. After playing for Foggia and Novara, he moved to Udinese, for which he gained promotion to Serie A, Italy's top division. He was later traded to Sampdoria, and then to Lanerossi Vicenza, Siena, Pro Gorizia and Opitergina, an amateur team from Oderzo, where he ended his player career, at 34.

After his playing retirement, Del Neri stayed at Oderzo, appointed by chairman Ettore Setten (now owner of Treviso) as head coach. Successively, in 1986 he signed for Serie D team Pro Gorizia. He then coached Partinicaudace, a minor Sicilian Serie D team, in 1989, Teramo, Ravenna, Novara and Nocerina of Serie C2; with this last team he won the league and promoted in Serie C1. He then took office at Ternana of Serie C2, bringing it up to Serie B after two consecutive promotions.

In 1998, after his second consecutive promotion, he was signed by Empoli of Serie A, but fired before to start the championship, being then recalled by his former team Ternana at the Serie B level.

In 2000, he signed with Chievo Verona of Serie B, a team representing a small quarter of Verona. It was the beginning of the so-called "miracle Chievo", with the team promoted to top division Serie A and then even qualified for UEFA Cup in its first season at the maximum level of Italian football.

In the summer of 2004, Del Neri was signed by Champions' League holders FC Porto, but, as well as it happened in Empoli, fired before to debut. He alleged personal reasons for his desire to return to Italy. Signed in October 2004 by AS Roma for replacing Rudi Völler, he in turn left his office in March 2005 after a dismaying series of defeats (only partially chargeable to Del Neri).

In 2005 summer he accepted the offer of US Palermo for coaching the Sicilian team, that is also participating in the UEFA Cup. After a good beginning, including a surprising 3-2 win against Inter Milan and the qualification to UEFA Cup group stages, the team started performing poor results, slowly losing positions in the Serie A table. After a 3-1 defeat at home against Siena, Del Neri was fired on January 28, 2006.

On October 16, 2006, Del Neri returned to coach Chievo Verona, replacing Giuseppe Pillon.

A Roman Catholic, Del Neri always pointed out the importance of ethics in his coaching work. He also maintained that his status of rich person, as a renowned Serie A coach, was largely related to causality: despite his ability, he could have well remained one of the many good but unknown coaches of lesser series if not a series of fortunate circumstances happened (probably hinting to his work in Chievo, where the usual strains of Italian football world are largely absent).

Preceded by Carlo Ancelotti

Serie A Coach of the Year 2002

Succeeded by Marcello Lippi