Edy Reja
We look at the profile of the recently departed Lazio manager who stated that he would like to take a break from football for two years, and given his age, which is 66 at the moment, it would remain for time to see whether he does
make an entry back into management. However, given the involvement Reja has had with football, it will be the case of “sooner rather than later” that he makes his way back into the fold of Serie A.
Introduction and Playing Career
Edoardo Reja was born in the city of Lucinico, Gorizia, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926 on the 10th October in 1945. His father was a Slovene and his mother a Friulan.
Reja's career in football was relatively long of 12-13 years having started in 1963 and playing until 1975. He played as a midfielder, till the age of 30. And four years after hanging his boots, he made his way into managing football.
Coaching Career
His first stint at management was in 1979 for the Serie D club Molinella. Reja changed clubs on 23 different occasions, so we will fast forward his managerial career to 2005, where he signed up as the manager of Napoli.
Napoli
He arrived at the club in the winter of 2005, replacing Giampiero Ventura as the Partenopei boss. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Napoli-c40003 was languishing in the third tier of the Italian football. Reja inspired Napoli and won promotion to the second tier (Serie
B) in 2006. He managed to pull off another promotion for the Azzurri, as they won promotion in 2007 to the Serie A, which is the top tier of Italian football.
Napoli’s momentum under Reja knew no bounds as he guided the Partenopei to the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2008. They were only defeated three times all season. Owing to his brilliant tactical prowess in guiding the Serie C team to Serie
A and then into a European club competition, the club directors made sure that Reja stayed with the club in 2008/09.
Napoli were doing very well and managed to climb to the first place of the Serie A, and many fans started taking a keener interest on the impact the club had in the Serie A. However, a streak of bad results sank the club below
the top spots, and furthermore they were losing ground on the European qualification places.
With the heightened expectations at the club, Napoli decided to fire the former Cagliari manager. This bought an end to the fairytale promotions Reja guided them to, and brought their five year association to an end. However, what
is ironic is the fact that the expectations at the club were brought on by Reja, himself, and the decision to part ways with him was extremely harsh when you look at his achievement during his time at the club.
Reja’s next destination was outside Italy where he took the management post at Hajduk Split. However, that union only lasted for a mere six months before Reja decided on making his way back to the Italian set up.
Lazio
Edy’s next destination was http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Davide-c10638 Ballardini as the capital outfits manager. Reja seems to have the magic charm and brings it along with him wherever he goes. He made an instant impact at the Roman outfit,
and turned the situation around the club. He was successful in avoiding relegation and helped Lazio finish in the mid table region.
The 2011/2012 season at the club was full of highs and lows for Lazio, with Reja bemoaning the strength of the squad at his disposal and the unnecessary burden exerted on the rest of his star players. This effectively risked their
performances. As a consequence, there were many instances when Reja handed in his resignation. However, they were constantly denied. The former Napoli manager did exceedingly with the constraints that he had to work with and managed to guide Lazio into the
Serie A top-four.
However, after the season ended, Reja handed in his resignation once more and stated that he would be taking a break from coaching for the time being.
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