Fabrizio Castori

Fabrizio Castori (born 11 July 1954) is an Italian football coach, currently in charge of Serie B club Südtirol.

Career

Castori was born in San Severino Marche but grew up in Tolentino. He started his coaching career in 1980 at the age of 26 as head coach of the Seconda Categoria team Belfortese from Belforte del Chienti. Initially a boss for amateur teams, having spent three seasons in Seconda Categoria (second-lowest division in Italian football) and three others in Prima Categoria, he led a Promozione team, Cerreto, to reach Serie D in 1990 (there was no Eccellenza division at that time). From 1992 to 1998 Castori coached Eccellenza team Tolentino leading them to Serie C2. In 1998-1999, he won a Serie D league and a Scudetto Dilettanti with Lanciano. After a poor Serie C1 season with Castel di Sangro, he returned to Lanciano in 2000 and immediately won the Serie C2 league. He stayed at Lanciano until 2003.

Cesena

In the summer of 2003, he was appointed head coach of Serie C1 team Cesena. In his first season, he led Cesena to win the promotion playoffs and the Coppa Italia Serie C; this however was obscured by a 3-year ban on him after having been the protagonist of a riot during the return leg of the promotion playoff finals against Lumezzane. The ban was successively reduced to 2 years following a pardon request by Castori himself; during this time, Castori was unable to serve as head coach but, despite this, he was confirmed as Cesena's boss, with assistant manager Massimo Gadda serving at his place on the dugout until 23 January 2006.