The Team That Performs Yearly Miracles…

By: Francesco | October 7th, 2008

In the current calcio world of teams that are constantly undergoing financial troubles, that jump between Serie A and Serie B, that get relegated and never come back, that have crazy owners who fire managers left and right, that have locker room problems, there is one club that defies all of these qualities and performs miracles every year. If you haven’t noticed the picture yet, it’s Udinese. If you currently look at the Serie A table you’ll see Udinese on top and many people are surprised, yet it really isn’t a surprise. Udinese for years now have had the most stable team in all of Italy, and the fruits of their labor are starting to show. Udinese is in my mind the best model to follow for any provincial club looking to succeed at a high level. I actually wanted to write a piece about Udinese for the longest time, and I finally decided to do so after there great start to the season. More on the “Friuliani” after the jump.

Udinese is actually one of the oldest clubs in Italy, founded in 1896. The club is located in the city of Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region up north. Udinese is a city with a population of around 100,000 and the team means a lot to “Friuliani” because it serves as a sense of Friulian pride for the whole region (except for Trieste where Triestina plays its football). The club has always been in Serie A or Serie B, except for a period during the ’60’s and ’70’s when they were in Serie C.

In 1986, after legendary Brazilian Zico left Udine, Gianpaolo Pozzo bought the club, and he owns it to this day. Pozzo is not really a owner you hear much from (cough Zamparini, Cellino cough) and doesn’t really enter the limelight besides the occasional interview. He’s not a “mangia-allenatori” (an owner that fires coaches left and right) and generally puts faith in the managers he hires. On a curious note he’s the only Serie A owner that sits in his own luxury box during the game.

In the early ’90’s Udinese were a yo-yo club, alternating between Serie A and Serie B every year. That finally ended in 1995, when they were promoted to Serie A and have stayed happily in paradiso until now. They have only finished below the Top 10 on 2 occasions (12th in 2000/2001 and 14th in 2001/2002) but besides those two seasons have always challenged for a European place. In 1997/98, 3-4-3 enthusiast Alberto Zaccheroni brought the club to a shocking 3rd place. Unfortunately back then only 2 spots were given for the Champions League, so Udinese had to make due with the UEFA Cup. However in 2004/2005 Luciano Spalletti put together an entertaining side that played with an attacking 4-3-3 and managed to surprisingly qualify for the Champions League for the first time in the Bianconeri’s history. The following season they played in the group stage with Barcelona, Werder Bremen, and Panathinaikos but finished 3rd and didn’t qualify for the knockout round.

So have you come to this point and are wondering: What’s the big deal? What’s so special about Udinese? What kind of miracle is this? I’m about to stop reading, this article sucks, I hope you resign! Well, I’ll tell you.

The thing that makes Udinese special is the philosophy in which the club is run. First and foremost, Udinese are a selling club. That means that they don’t keep a good player for more then two seasons max, unless the player is the captain and considered a bandiera [flagship player, see Antonio Di Natale]. If they get a good offer for a player, they’ll quite simply take it, tell the player thank you for your service, invest the money and buy a new talent. The club relies on it’s scouts, which are really some of the best scouts not only in Europe but in the whole world, to find unknown talents all over the globe, sign them, let them mature and become breakout stars, and then sell them off to a bigger club. You will very rarely see Udinese sign an established player. A recent study showed that currently they are the only Serie A team that turns a profit every year.

Just think of some of the players Udinese have discovered over the years: Oliver Bierhoff, Marcio Amoroso, Stefano Fiore, David Pizarro, Thomas Helveg, Martin Jorgensen, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari, Sergio Almiron, Roberto Sosa, Marek Jankulovski, Christian Zapata, Felipe, Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez, the list is endless. The club just knows how to find talent.

Udinese has also always hired up and coming managers: Francesco Guidolin, Alberto Zaccheroni, Luciano Spalletti, Gigi De Canio, and Serse Cosmi just to name a few all spent time managing the Friulani.

Their current manager Pasquale Marino is considered one of the top up-and-coming tacticians in all of Italy and likes to use a 4-3-3 with seems to be attacking but also works defensively. The Italian press has dubbed him “Marinho” in this early part of the season.

All in all, Udinese is a model club in which most lower level Italian teams would do well to emulate. They are a success story in the calcio world and continue to perform miracles every year. And with this excellent start to the season, who knows if Udinese can taste the pitches of the Champions League again next season…

For more daily Udinese news, read the Udinese Offside blog.