Zeman, Zdenek

Zdenek Zeman was born on May 12, 1947 in Prague , his father, Karel, was the doctor who provided first aid, and his mother, Kvetusha Vychpalkova, was a housewife. On the maternal side, he is the nephew of Chestmir Wiezpreid , a famous player and coach of Juventus , who loved little Zdenek and instilled in him a passion for football.

In 1968, Zeman and his sister Ermila with the help of his uncle moved to Palermo , fleeing from the Prague Spring , where he received Italian citizenship in 1975 and married Chiara Perricone, who bore two children to Zeman - Karel (who also later became a football coach) ^[1] and Andrea, also received an ISEF Palermo diploma in sports medicine, gaining the maximum number of votes.

Sometimes I feel more Italian than my players.

Coaching career

Zeman started his coaching career in amateur clubs Cinisi, speaking on the outskirts of Palermo, Bachigalupo, Carini, Misilmeri and Ezacals. In 1979, he received, through the mediation of his uncle, a temporary permission for coaching and began to train the youth of the Palermo club, then he went through coaching courses in Sicily and headed the club of the C2 Series “ Licata ”, a year later released in Serie B , scoring on 30 balls more than the closest pursuer. Then he led Foggia ( Serie S1 ) and Parma ( Serie B ), with Parma in the offseason, he defeated Real Madrid 2-1, and in the Italian Cup he knocked Milan out of the draw, but after a series of unsuccessful games and conflict with the management of the club, he was forced to return to Sicily, where he headed Messina , in which the young player Salvatore Skillaci made his debut as an adult scorer of the second Italian division with 23 goals in the adult team.

In 1989, Zeman was again invited to Foggia by the president of the club Pasquale Casillo, starting with the team in Serie B, he went with her to the top Italian division, after which the club was called Foggia dei Miracoli (Wonderful Foggia). Zeman's team immediately became the hard middleman of Serie A, and the club's attack, composed of Francesco Baiano , Giuseppe Signori and Roberto Ramboudi , was the most formidable among the non-grande clubs of Italy. Before the 1992/93 season, Zeman, having talked with the club management, decided to completely renew the team, creating the backbone of "Foggia" from the little-known players of the C1 and C2 Series. The club, made up of unknown players, took 11th place in the championship, and the biggest achievement of that season was a victory over Juventus 2: 1. In the same season, the term “Zemaniana” appeared, denoting reckless attacking football, which was played by young footballers “Foggia”. In Foggia, Zeman first tried the 4-3-3 scheme, which he subsequently adhered to in all the clubs in which he worked.

In 1994, in which Foggia took the 9th place, Zeman began to call clubs in Italy, there were offers from abroad, in particular, from Real Madrid, but still Zeman decided to head the club, which the ambitious club president Sergio Kranotti was seen as one of the greats of Serie A, Lazio . Zeman worked with the club for almost 3 seasons, in which the club won second and third place in the championship, Alessandro Nesta opened his talent to the world, reached the Italian Cup semi-finals and the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, but Lazio did not set the 1996/97 season. January 27, 1997 Zeman was fired. After his dismissal, he immediately received several proposals, among which was the Catalan Barcelona , but Zeman accepted the offer from Roma president Franco Sensi. The team did not shine in those years, in the previous championship it took only 12th place, only 4 rounds before the finish of the championship ensured the maintenance of “registration” in Serie A. But with the arrival of Zeman everything changed: in the very first season with Zeman the club took 4th place in the championship, and a year later was 5th, which was considered a failure, after which Zeman was fired. During this period, Zeman managed to finally reveal the talent of the young Francesco Totti , who was recognized as the best young player of the championship. Also at that time, Zdenek blamed the Juventus club for using doping ^[2] .

The training is over. Rain slush. Entered the locker room, removed the form. Appeared with a cigarette phlegmatic Zeman. And then Kandel , tying two wet leggings, with all his strength threw them in the face of the coach! But even more I was struck by the reaction of Zeman - he picked up a cigarette from the floor, re-lit it and quietly left the locker room. I am shocked to Tetradze : “Is it that way?” Omari laughed: “Get used to it!” And around - general laughter, music ... And then - no sanctions ^[3] .

In 1999, Zeman led the Fenerbahce club, but after 3 months he was fired, having won only one victory over this period. Then he headed the club " Napoli ", which led to Serie A, but in the top Italian division, the club from 8 matches won only one, and Zeman was again dismissed. Then he led the “ Salernitana ”, with which he took the 6th place in Serie B, with “ Avellino ”, with which he flew into Serie C1.

In the 2004/05 season, Zeman headed the Serie A club Lecce , with whom he took 10th place. The club showed a bright and overtaking game, scoring 66 goals (only the champion - Juventus, scored one goal more) and conceding 73 (the worst result in Serie A), and also opened two Eastern European forwards to Italian football - Mirko Vucinic and Valeriy Bozhinov . At the end of the season, the contract with Zeman was not extended, although Leipche tiffozi insisted on renewing. On March 5, 2006, Zeman led the Series B club at Brescia , replacing Rolando Maran , who was fired after winning 3-0, while the club was in 5th place, and at Zeman, Brescia finished the season only at the 10th place in the standings . On June 21, 2006, Zeman once again became the coach of Lecce, but the club, which bought several players at Zeman’s request, confidently started the championship, soon fell into a crisis zone, during which the team lost several matches, and on December 24, 2006, Zeman was fired 10 defeats in 18 games in six months.

On June 17, 2008, Zeman led the Serbian club “ Red Star ”, with which Zeman lost in the Intertoto Cup final, and in the championship in 3 rounds scored only one point, and was dismissed on September 7.

July 20, 2010 Zeman was appointed head coach of " Foggia " ^{[4] [5]} . On May 23, 2011, he left the post of the head coach of the team: “With Foggia I could not take first place, and that was the goal I set myself. I'm not sure that I will be able to achieve it in the next season, but because I am leaving ” ^{[6] [7]} .

June 25, 2011 he was appointed head coach of Pescara ^{[8] [9]} .

On May 30, 2012, Zeman announced that he would lead Roma ^[10] , the same information was confirmed the next day by the general director of the Roman club Franco Baldini ^[11] . Later he said: “This is my last chance to prove myself in the top club, because I am no longer young” ^[12] . June 4, Zeman signed a contract with "Roma" for a period up to June 30, 2014 ^{[13] [14]} . February 2, 2013, the day after the home defeat of Cagliari (2: 4), was dismissed from his post ^{[15] [16]} .

June 14, 2015 he was appointed head coach of the Swiss club " Lugano " ^[17] . June 4, 2016 decided not to extend the relationship with "Lugano" ^[18] .

On February 17, 2017, he was appointed Pescara's head coach ^[19] . February 19, 2017, in the first match after returning Zeman, closing the Pescara standings in the 25th round of the Serie A 2016/17 in their field, beat Genoa 5-0 in large, after which the guests played coaching on the same day (instead of Ivan Yurich, the Genoese were headed by Andrea Mandorlini ) ^{[20] [21] [22]} .

Doping charges

July 25, 1998 Zeman said in an interview: “Victory in the championship began to be achieved not only on the field. It's time to free the game from the influence of pharmacology ”, in particular, accused Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluca Vialli ^[23] . The controversy turned into a press. On August 10, Juventus accused Zeman of slander, and the head coach of the club Marcello Lippi demanded 5 years in prison for Zeman. September 19, it was announced that the doping tests of players stolen from the laboratory. Several players, in particular Paolo Negro , reported that Zeman himself, at the time of work as the Lazio trainer, forced the players to take creatine ^[24] . After that, an investigation was launched into the public Turin ministry of Raffaele Guarinello , which brought charges against Juventus chief Antonio Giraudo and the health worker Ricardo Agricola. But Zeman himself suffered, the judges stopped putting penalties in favor of Roma, and even podzuzhivali her rivals, and later Zeman was fired.

The trial ended in March 2007 with the verdict of the court of cassation, which confirmed the acquittal, announced after the appeal of Giraudo and Agricola, explaining that the court of first instance did not take into account additional circumstances, at the same time the Supreme Court stated that it would be expedient to conduct a new trial, relating exclusively to the drug mafia, but due to the statute of limitations a new trial, under Italian law, was impossible to initiate. In addition, in 2005, the International Court of Arbitration of Sport of Lausanne acquitted Juventus, due to the fact that the medicines taken by Juve players were in those years on the list of approved drugs.

Zeman Tactics

Zeman is one of the biggest followers of the 4-3-3 scheme in Italian football. The expert himself defined this scheme as “geometry”, based on the attacking game, hard power action on the field, zone defense, the ability to make artificial offsides and constant pressure across the entire field. His methods of work, especially with regard to the training of teams, also became very well known.

Team

• Winner of the C2 (1) Series : 1984/1985
• Winner of the B Series (2): 1990/91 , 2011/12

Personal

• Silver Bench Award Winner: 2011/12

• Lost Football Archipelago Zemanlandia
• Article on tkachev.org (inaccessible link)
• Czech "medic" Zdenek Zeman
• Official site of Zeman (ital.)