15 Facts About Emiliano Mondonico

Emiliano Mondonico was an Italian professional footballer and coach.

Emiliano Mondonico's playing career was spent mostly with Cremonese, where it began and ended.

Emiliano Mondonico grew up playing in the youth team of Rivoltana, an amateur team in his hometown of Rivolta d'Adda in the Province of Cremona.

Emiliano Mondonico later returned to Cremonese where he ended his playing career after seven seasons disputed between Serie B and Serie C in 1979.

Emiliano Mondonico began his managerial career with the Cremonese youth team in 1979.

In September 2009, Emiliano Mondonico was appointed as head coach of AlbinoLeffe to replace Armando Madonna.

Emiliano Mondonico stepped down as head coach of AlbinoLeffe on 29 January 2011 due to "serious health issues", with his assistant Daniele Fortunato taking over on an interim basis.

On 17 June 2011, Emiliano Mondonico was confirmed to have resigned from AlbinoLeffe in order to focus solely on cancer treatment; he was replaced by his assistant Daniele Fortunato, who had already undertaken the first team coaching duties during his previous sick leave.

On 30 January 2012, Emiliano Mondonico marked his Serie A comeback, replacing Attilio Tesser as head coach of Novara, who were last-placed in the Italian top flight and seven points shy of relegation safety after the first half of the season.

Emiliano Mondonico was a pragmatic coach, who used a counter-attacking style based on obtaining results rather than ball possession; he was a proponent of the gioco all'italiana or zona mista style, which was inspired by catenaccio, but which blended elements of man-to-man and zonal marking systems.

Emiliano Mondonico was known for his balanced approach in attack and defence, with his teams often defending deep behind the ball and attacking collectively.

Emiliano Mondonico stood out for his ability to express his tactical ideas in a simple manner.

Emiliano Mondonico's attacking play was based on the mobility of his teams' forwards.

Emiliano Mondonico used Brazilian centre-forward Walter Casagrande in a role known as the "centravanti di manovra" in Italian football jargon, a precursor to the modern false-nine role, in which he was seemingly positioned as a lone striker, but dropped deep to help his team and be involved in the build-up, rather than looking to score goals.

Emiliano Mondonico died at the age of 71 on 29 March 2018, from stomach cancer.